
Bonk ■ /6" 




LINCOLN IN STORY 



The Life of the Martyr-President 
told in Authenticated Anecdotes 



EDITED BY 



SILAS G. PRATT 



Selected and Slightly Abridged by V. L 



TOKIO, & OSAKA 

MABUZEN KABUSHIKI KAISHA 

(Z. p. MARUYA & Co., Ltd.) 



19 04. 



f 







A. Lincoln. 

Photographed in i860. 



, -J 't' * K »h m m mnmf^m 

LINCOLN IN STORY 



T//e Life of the Martyr-President 
told ill Aidhentieated Anecdotes 



EDITED BY 



SILAS G. PRATT 



Selected and Slightly Abridged by P. I. 



TOKIO, & OSAKA 

MAEHZEN KABUSHIKI KAISHA 

(Z. p. MARUYA & Co., Ltd.) 
19 04. 



lfii"J 



ri 



• -"^8 



INTRODUCTION 



When a boy, the writer listened to the sturdy eloquence 
of Lincohi. He was in tlic old " Wigwam " at Chicago 
when Lincoln was nominated for the presidency, and 
witnessed the frantic dem ..nstration of enthusiasm when 
the rails he had split were produced in tlie convention. 
Later he saw I^incoln's face, in the silei^ce and calmness 
of lasting repose, after the assassin Jiad accomplished his 
death. These small personal associations have strengthen- 
ed the writer's feeling that the greater the intimacy with 
Lincoln's life which one can gain, the stronger, better, 
and more humane one may become. 

The memories of such a pure, unselfish, and honest 
character will form a shield for the individual and a bul- 
wark for a nation. 

Nearly every Life of the Martyr President, or Book of 
Recollections, so far published, has contained some anec- 
dotes which have given us an occasional glimpse into the 
realms ot his great soul — a rare gem, disclosing the pris- 
matic colors of a cosmic nature — but no volume has been 
devoted exclusively to narratives. 

The great interest siiov/n, especially by the younger 
generation, in the fugitive Lincoln stories which have 
appeared in various magazines and journals from time to 
time, no less than the writer's personal enjoyment of those 
found scattered through the larger works, as well as the 
hope of inspiring additional interest in the study of his 



ii LINCOLN IN STOR\ 

more complete history, has been the incentive of this 
compilation. 

It is also a pleasure to record the statements of the 
artist B. F. Carpenter, who for six months lived at the 
White House with Lincoln ; the Hon. William H. Se- 
ward, his Secretary of State ; and the Rev. Mr. Bristow, 
of New York, that they never heard the President tell any 
anecdote which could not have been repeated with pro- 
priety in the presence of ladies, thus indicating that the 
habits acquired "on the circuit" in Illinois had been oi '- 
grown in the more serious and lofty ideals of the stale ;- 
man. 

While these stories do not offer a complete life history, 
they are presented in chronological order, as far as possi- 
ble, and the salient points of Lincoln's life are briefly 
mentioned, thus forming a warp upon which the various 
anecdotes are woven. The book, therefore, offers a 
biography in story form which it is hoped will prove of 
interest to older as well as younger readers, and of value 
to private and public libraries as well as to school li- 
braries aiid readin^' circles, since I believe there has been 
no such consecutive presentation of Lincoln's life through 
the medium of anecdotes. 

Many stories are quoted as told by individuals, and 
frequently, the forms of speech, quaint and full of "local 
color," are less elegant, pcrha[)s, than true. 

It has seemed to the writer, in compiling these narra- 
tives, that a new estimate of Lincoln's character was 
brought out ; that the stature of goodness was increased 
far beyond that of even oiu' great men ; that the humanity, 
tenderness, love of mankind, willingness to help, and joy 
in making others happy, was indeed godlike ; addeel to 



INTRODUCTION lii 

tin's, the spirit of toleration and forbearance exercised 
toward his enemies, and we realize the truthfulness of 
John Hay's estimate in a letter to Mr. Herndon : 

" I consider Lincoln's republicanism incarnate, with all 
its faults and virtues. As, in spite of some rudeness, 
republicanism is the sole hope of a sick world, so Lincoln, 
with all his foibles, is the greatest character since Christ." 

The stories have been gleaned from various sources : 
notably from that excellent book Abraham Lincoln : The 
True Story of Great Life, by William H. Herndon and 
Jesse W. Weik, and also Carpenter's Recollections, 
Chittenden's Recollections of Lincoln's Administration, 
Wallace's, Rice's, Arnold's, Lamon's, and Whitney's 
books, and a few signed articles in newspapers and journals, 
such as the New York World and Home Journal, but no 
anecdote is given which has not been carefully verified. 

If this little volume gives to the reader but a tithe ot 
the pleasure it has brought the wTiter in his labor of com- 
pilation, and if it should awaken a new interest in the 
rugged life of the " greatest character since Christ," it 
will serve the purpose for which it was written. 

S. G. Pratt. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

PAGES. 

The earliest days ^"4 

CHAPTER H 
The boy at school— His mother's death— Kate Roby 
and the spelling class— Night studies by the 
log fire 5-9 

CHAPTER HI 
Lincoln's stepsister meets with an accident— He 
insists upon her telling the truth — Lincoln is 
nearly killed at the mill by his horse — Captain 
Larkins's fast horse 10-13 

CHAPTER TV 
Lincoln's great strength— How he earned his first 
dollar, as told by him.self— He saves a man 
from freezing to death 13-1/ 

CHAPTER V 
Lincoln rescues the pet dog— Begins work for him- 
self—Builds a log house and splits rails— Again 
goes to New Orleans — An exciting adventure — 
Lincoln helps to save the lives of three men . 17-25 

CHAPTER VI 
Lincoln and the " Clary's Grove boys " — His Vv^rest- 
liug match with Jack Armstrong — Lincoln 
walks six miles to return six cents — He " chops 
up " a house for a barefooted man — Elected 
captain in the "Black Hawk" War — How he 



VI LINCOLN IN STORY 

PAGES. 

managed to get his company ''endwise" — 
Lincoln saves the Hfe of a defenseless Indian. 25-34 

CHAPTER VII 
Enters into politics and gets all but three votes In 
New Salem — Studies law barefooted on a wood- 
pile — Lincoln cradles wheat to win votes — 
Story of Lincoln's betrothal to Anne Rutledgc 
— Her sudden death nearly unseats Lincoln's 
reason — Elected to the Legislature — The light- 
ning rod and Forquier's guilty conscience. . 34-41 

CHAPTER VIII 
Joshua Speed's story of Lincoln's first appearance 
as a lawyer in Springfield — Campaign expenses, 
seventy-five cents — Demands free speech for a 
friend — Wins a farmer's wife with stories, while 
his opponent milked her cow — Rescues a pig — 
The old blue sock and Government money — 
Lincoln marries — Partner of Logan — Of Hern- 
don — Makes speeches for Clay — Elected to 
Congress — His eloquent appeal saves two 
young men from committing a dishonest act . 41-54 

CHAPTER IX 

Lincoln carries a little girl's trunk to the station — 
His little boy runs naked from his bath — The 
widow's pension case— " Skin Wright and 
Close" — Lincoln studies poetry — His defense 
of William Armstrong . . . , • t 55"^5 

CHAPTER X 
Lincoln again enters politics — His anti-Nebraska 
speech — Chosen to answer Douglas — Assists in 



CONTENTS vii 

PAGIS 

organiziiig the Rci'iiblican party — An audience 
of two- Challeng-es *' the Little Giant " to de- 
bate — Speech on the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence — The "bulwark of liberty" speech — 
Nominated and elected President — Prophetic 
solilocjuy— He leaves Springfield — The plot to 
assassinate him at Paltimore 66-8^ 

CHAPTER XI 

Events leading up to the great civil war — Treason 
in the Cabinet of President Buchanan — Seces- 
sion of tlic Southern States — Ex-Senator Dawes 
describes Lincoln's arrival in Washington — 
Loyalty of General Scott— Firing on Fort Sum- 
ter — Call for seventy-five thousand troops — 
Massachusetts regiment mobbed in Baltimore — 
Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts 
troops defend the Capitol--The great uprising 
of the North— Douglas's loyalty — His famous 
speech — Lincoln opposes General Scott's plan 
of the battle of Bull Rum— Defeat of the Union 
<'^rmy 85-95 

CHAPTER XII 

The sleeping sentinel and the President — Lincoln 
visits the condemned soldier and pardons him 
— The sentinel becomes a hero in battle, and 
dies a glorious death . '95-109 

^ CHAPTER Xni 

** A little more light and a little less noise" — 
Lincoln's *' Cheese l^ox " — Tie President's ex- 
perience as a boatman on the Mississippi gives 



Viil LINCOLN IN STORY 

I'AGES. 

US tiic I^Jonitor In opposition to the entire naval 
bo;ircl— Ikittle of the Monitor and Merrlniac. 

109-12 1 

CHAPTER XIV 

Lincohi's** leg- ca^^cs " — He dismisses a Union, officer 
for treasonable langua^^e — Tlie widow and her 
wounded son — How Lincoln " plowed around " 
the Governor — The j^rcsideiUial "chin-fly" 
story — The sick cirunnricr boy — The poor 
woman and licr two soiis. 122-134. 

CHAPTER XV 

"It was the baby did it" — The President ejects an 
insolent officer Sitting for his portrait - He 
repeats passages from Shakespeare — *' Why 
should the spirit of mortal be proud ?" . . 135-142 

CHAPTER XVI 

'*By Jingo! Butler or no Butler, h.ere goes" — 
Lincoln tells a story to General Grant — Gives 
freedom to many imprisoned for resisting the 
draft — The Gettysburg address .... 142-150 

- CHAPTER XVIT 

■ <, 

Secon.d inauguration --The President at Petersburg is 
mistaken for a rebel —The Confederate Govern- 
ment de.-^troyed — l^hicoln's entry into Richmond 
— General Pickett's wife and the President — 
His last official act was to save a life — His 
assassination— His Code of War adopted at the 
Peace Conference at The Hague . . . 150-163 



LINCOLN IN STORY 



CHAPTER I. 

*' God bless my mother 1 All 1 am, or all I hope to be, 
I owe to her."— LiXCOLX. 

Abraham Lincoln was horn February 12, 1809, 
in Hardin Country, Kci.tiicky, in a little log house 
such as all tlie pioneers of the Western States 
built for themselves ; with no flooring but the 
earth, no paper to cover the logs, and with but 
the most primitive furniture, such as they them- 
selves could make, the place formed le^ss a residence 
for comfort than a refuge against the storms of 
rain in summer and snow and frost in winter. 
They lived in the open air, in tlie forest or the 
field ; the log house was' simply a place to sleep 
in, secure from the attacks of wild animals or 
venomous reptiles. "^ 

Here it was that Abraham Lincoln, who was 
soon nicknamed *' Abe," passed the first seven 
years of his life. 

It was here that his mother, impressed with the 
great importance of an education K)r her boy, 
taught him to read and write, there ujing no 



2 LINCOLN IN STORY 

school in that thinly settled region. She instilled 
into his . biidding mind that intense desire for 
knowledge and zeal for study which characterized 
and inHaenced him throughout his entire life ; and 
if the poverty which burdened them and the hard- 
ships they endured claim our sympathies, the out- 
door life, the work in the held, or chopping wood, 
the hunting, fishing, planting, and harvesting, con- 
duced to a strong and vigorous physical growth 
which was in some measure a compensation. It 
was this life, with its freedom and the continual 
and forced intimacy with a new and uncultivated 
country, as well as the struggle for existence, 
which made little "Abe" such a perfect child of 
nature. 

It is well to remember that the devotion, affec- 
tionate and thoughtful spirit, that guarded the 
childhood days of litde " Abe " lent a halo of 
glory to the humble home, and clothed the rude 
life with a charm which left an undying impression 
upon the bo)-. It grew stronger as he reached 
manhood, and this mother-love, so full of " the 
milk of human kindness," blossomed out and 
found its full fruitage in the emancipation of a 
race and tlu glorification of a nation. 

When " Abe " was seven years of age his 
parents moved from Kentucky to Indiana in a 
" Hoosier " wagon draw^n by two horses. There 



LINCOLN IN STORY 3 

being no railroads in those days, the emigration 
to the Western States was accomplished chiefly in 
covered wagons which took on the name '* Hoo- 
sier" for the reason that they originated in In- 
diana, the " Hoosier " State. These vehicles were 
usually constructed from the long box farm-wagon 
used for carrying grain ; along the sides of the 
wagon box long hoops were fastened and bent ; 
over these, canvas or other cloth was spread and 
fastened tight at the sides, thus forming a sort of 
rounded-top tent. Into this kind of tented con- 
veyance the Lincoln family placed their effects, 
sleeping at night in the wagon and taking refuge 
in it from the heat of the sun or rain-storms. It 
w^as a common sight, even as late as i860, to see 
on nearly every road leading w^estward, long lines 
of these tented ''Hoosier" waijons movino- over 
hill, through forest, fording streams, or threading 
across prairies following the '' Star of Empire " to 
the Mississippi River, and beyond to the Rocky 
Mountains and California. 

Little '' Abe " no doubt enjoyed this moving 
life, and found delight in driving the horses and 
seeing the new country. 

During these first seven years the boy not only 
learned to work and was Inured to hardships ; he 
had also amusements of a rou^h but l^e.-i.th)' sort. 
He played with a favorite hunting dog, cliascd 



4 LINCOLN IN STORY 

butterflies In summer, built little mud dams across 
the brooks, and sometimes accompanied his father 
on the hunt. g. 

The voices of nature were continually whisper- 
ing in his ears. The weird sono- of the forest, the 
trees swaying in the breeze or bending in the 
storm, the wild moaning of the cold winter wind, 
the silent fall of the snow tor days, when they 
were shut in from the world, exercised an awe- 
inspiring influence on the mind of the wondering 
boy, and produced a feeling of reverence for the 
unseen hand which caused them. 

Little " Abe " returned his mother's affection* 
was always willing to do any work required, and* 
responding to the magical influence of gentleness 
and love, learned thus early to do his duty cour- 
ageously and honestly, regardless of personal com- 
fort or pain. 

In spite of their great poverty and rude home* 
little " Abe " flourished, grew strong and full of 
exuberant boyish spirit. His habit of going bare- 
footed a good portion of the )'ear no doubt con- 
tributed something to his health, and thus we 
ma}- think ot his childhood as having been spent 
happily as well as usefully. 



LINCOLN IN STORY 



CHAPTER II. 



The boy at school — Kate Roby and the spelling class 
— Night studies by the log fire. 

The Lincoln family settled on a Pigeon Creek, 
Indiana, in the spring of 1816, the father build- 
ing a log hut open on one side and without a 
floor. The nearest village where there was a post- 
office or store was Gentryville. Two years after 
they located there, a terrible disease, called the 
** milk-sick," caused the death of many people as 
well as cattle and calves. Abraham's mother died 
of that disease, as did also an uncle and aunt who 
lived near by (18 18). About a year after his 
mother's death his father married again, and 
brought home a very kind-hearted and good 
woman who did all she could to make little 
" Abe's " life happy and useful. She soon became 
very fond of him, and, many years after, when he 
had become a famous man, she said " he was the 
best and most obedient boy she ever knew." It 
was this good stepmother who influenced the father 
to let Abraham attend school, which he did for a 
few weeks during the winter of 18 19. But he 
studied at home as well as at school, and soon 
became the best speller in the class. 

The next winter he also had a few • weeks at 



LINCOLN IN STORY 



school ; but altog-etlier he had in his whole life 
not more than four months at school. However, 
he was so eager to learn, and studied and read so 
industriously every minute he could find time, 
that he finally became one of the wisest and most 
renowned men of his aoe. 

During the short time he attended school a 
little incident occurred which showed Lincoln's 
kindly disposition to help others, even at the early 
age of ten. 

One day in the spelling class the teacher, a 
Mr. Crawford, gave out the word " defied." 

The first one spelled it d-e-f-y-e-d ; the second 
also made a mistake, and then it came the turn 
of Kate Roby, a little girl who was standing, 
opposite to Lincoln, in the line on the other side 
of the schoolroom. 

She began d-e-f-, and was just about to say 
" y " when she glanced at Lincoln, who had been 
closely watching her. He had on a broad grin 
and pointed with one hand to his eye ; the litde 
girl quickly guessed his meaning and spelled it 
correctly with an '' i." 

It was while going to this school that he 
composed many verses and rhymes. One of 
these rhymes was as follows : 

" Good boys who to their books apply 
Will all be great men by and by." 



LINCOLN IN STORY 7 

Our l^eloved poet Longfellow must have thought 
of men like Lincoln when he wrote this verse : 

" Lives of great men all remind us, 
We can make our lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time." 

His Night Studies by the Log Fire 

** Diligence is genius." — Bacit. 

** Three fourths of genius is hard work." 

— Robert Collyer. 

While living at Gentry vi lie Abraham's father 
built another log house, enclosed on all sides, but 
they were so very poor ihey could not afford to 
have candles at night. However, they had a big 
fireplace, which was built of bricks, at one end of 
the log house, and Abraham soon found a way 
to make a light by which he could read and 
study. 

He used to go out and get some logs of dry 
wood and pile them on the fire ; then they would 
blaze up brightly and shed a strong light over 
the room. Abraham would then lie down iiat 
on the floor, with his book in front of him, before 
the hearth, "'^'and thus resting on his stomach, his 
head upon his hand, he would read and study. 

In this way he read many times over the life 
of Washington, the Bible, /Esop's Fables, and 
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 



8 LINCOLN IN STORY 

It was before the Ioq' fire, night after night, 
that Lincoln in this nianner studied his arithmetic, 
writing his sums with a piece of charcoal upon a 
large wooden shovel they happened to have in 
the house at the time. After covering it all over 
with examples, he would take his jack-knife or a 
plane and shave it off clean, ready for the next 
night's work. 

Paper at that time was very expensive, and 
a slate cost more than they could afford to pay, 
so Abraham used the wooden shovel for a slate, 
and for pencil (which they also could not buy), 
he used a piece of charcoal picked up from the 
fireplace. Thus, in spite of poverty, he succeeded 
in studying, and made rapid, progress. 

Sometimes, when the shovel was not to be had, 
he wrote his figures on the logs along the sides 
of the house, on the door posts, and any wood- 
work where his charcoal could be used. 

Thus his determination to learn and *' be some- 
body" overcame the greatest difficulties — obstacles 
which few bo)-^ wou'd have tried to overcome. 
This sublime will " to do things,' and help others, 
attracted the attention of the neighbors, and, 
despite his shabby clothes, he was greatly 
respected. -' 

John Hanks, who afterward worked with him 
in splitting rails, tells us something of the secret 



LINCOLN IX STORY 9 

of Lincoln's education. Fie said: ''When Abe 
and I returned from work, be would get a piec .' 
of corn bread, take a book, and sit down to rea 1 
even while eating ; when lie had a cliance, in tli'j 
field or at home, he would stop and read, alwaA's 
having some useful book with him." This was 
when Abraham was fourteen years of age. 



CHAPTER III, 

Lincoln's high sense of lionor — He would not permit his 
sister to deceive her mother — Is nearly killed at th.: 
mill — Captain Larkins's fast horse. 

While still living near Gentryville, one morning 
when Lincoln was going to work in the woods, 
with his ax over his shoulder, his stepsister, 
Matilda Johnson, who had been forbidden by her 
mother to follow^ him, slyly, and unknown to her 
mother, crept out of the liouse and ran after him. 
Lincoln was already quite a long distance from 
the house, among the trees, following a deer patli, 
and whistlino^ as he walked alon^. 

He, of course, did not know the girl was com- 
ing after him, and Matilda ran so softly that she 
niade no noise to attract his attention. When she 
came close up behind him she :r.a !c a quick spring 



10 LINCOLN tN STORY 

and jumped upon his slioulders, holding on with 
both hands and pressing her knees into his back, 
thus pulling- him quickly down to the ground. In 
falling, the sharp ax which Lincoln was carrying- 
fell also and cut her ankle very badly ; as the 
blood ran out the mischievous Matilda screamed 
with pain ; Lincoln at once tore off some cloth to 
stop the blood from flowing and bound up the 
wound as well as he could. Then taking a long 
breath, he said : 

" 'Tilda, I am astonished ! How could you 
disobey mother so ? " 

'Tilda only cried in reply, and Lincoln con- 
tinued : " What are you going to tell mother 
about getting hurt .^ " 

"Tell her I did it with the ax," she sobbed. 
"That will be the truth, won't it?" To which 
Lincoln replied manfully : 

" Yes, that's the truth ; but it's not a/l the truth. 
You tell the whole truth, 'Tilda, and trust your 
good mother for the rest." 

So 'Tilda went limping home and told her 
mother all the truth ; and the good woman felt so 
sorry for her that she did not even scold her. 

Lincoln o'oes lo Mill and is nearly killed by his Horse 

Mr. 1 lerndo:!, in his life of Lincoln, gives the 
following account of an accident that came ver)' 



LINCOLN IN STORY U 

near rendering this book an impossibility. He 
says : 

" In later years Mr. Lincoln related the following 
reminiscence of his experience as a miller in 
Indiana : One day, takin.^^- a bag" of corn, he 
mounted the old liea-bitten gray mare and rode 
leisurely to Gordon's Mill. Arriving somewhat 
late, his turn did not come till almost sundown. 
In accordance with the prevailing custom he 
hitched the old mare to the arm, and mountin^f 
it, commenced v/hipping and urging the animal on 
to the work. Exclaiming, ' Get up, you old 
hussy ! ' he applied the lash with each turn of the 
arm. The old horse, finally resenting his frequent 
goadings, suddenly interrupted him in the midst 
of his exclamation, just as he had cried out 'Get 

up, you * with a well-directed kick, which 

struck him on the forehead and instantly knocked 
him senseless. The miller rushed in, and picking 
up the unconscious and bleeding boy, whom he 
thought dead, sent for his father. Old Thomas 
Lincoln finally came and loaded the lifeless boy in 
a wagon and drove home. Abe lay unconscious 
all night, but at break of day his attendants noticed 
signs of returning life ; the blood began to fiow 
normally, his tongue struggled to loosen itself, his 
frame jerked for an instant, and he awoke, blurt- 
ing out the words ' You old hussy ! ' the latter half 



12 LINCOLN IN STORY 

of the sentence interrupted by the mare's kick." 
Mr. Lincoln considered this one of the re- 
markable incidents of his life. 

In speaking of it (as he often did) years after- 
ward, he explained the incident thus: "Just before 
I struck the old mare, my will, through the mind» 
had set the muscles of my tongue to utter the 
expression, and wdien her heels came in contact 
with my head, the whole thing stopped half-cocked, 
as it were, and was only fired off when mental 
energy or force returned." 

Captain Larkinss Fast Horse and Lincobis 

Humor 

In the town, not far from where Lincoln lived, 
was a short, fat man called Captain Larkins. He 
was very fond of boasting. If he bought a pair 
of boots, he would say, *' They're the finest pair of 
boots in the town " ; if he got a new wagon, *' It 
is the best wagon in the settlement " ; when he 
bought a new harness for his horse, " It is the 
strongest and best-made harness in the place.*" 
By his loud talk and proud manner he made many 
people think he was a great man. But Lincoln 
did not like his bragging ways at all. Once when 
there was a holiday, and many farmers were gath- 
sred at the store in the village. Captain Larkins 
began to boast about his horse, telling the crowd 



LINCOLN IN STORY 1 3 

that he had *' the best and fastest horse in the 
town." This he repeated several times, and step- 
ping up to Lincohi, shouted out in a loud voice 
so diat all might hear it, " I have the best horse 
in the country. I ran him three miles in nine 
minutes and he never fetched a lone breath." 

Lincoln, then a tall young man, six feet high, 
looked down at the fat little man, and said : 
*' Well, Larkins, why don't you tell us how many 
s/ior^ breaths he drew!" 

This raised a loud laugh, and Captain Larkins 
got angry and declared he'd fight " Abe " if he 
wasn't so big. He jumped around and made such 
a fuss that finally Lincoln quiedy said, '' Now, 
9 Larkins, if you don't keep still I'll throw you in 
that water." 



CHAPTER IV. 

Lincoln's great strength and how he earned his first dollar, 
as told by himself—He saves a man from freezing to 
death. 

When Lincoln was seventeen years of age he 
had already attained his full growth, and was 
very tall. He hired out to a Mr. Gentry to help 
him with a ferry across the Ohio River, receiving 



f4 LINCOLN IN STORY 

thirty-seven cents a day for his labor. While 
thus working- he wrote an essay on the American 
Government which attracted much attention at 
that time, and an article on temperance which 
was published in an Ohio paper. 

" AIdq " was a very stroni^ boy. It is said 
he could carr)^ six hundred pounds at a time, and 
on one occasion he walked away with a pair of 
loes which three robust men could iiot handle. 
" He could strike with a maul a iieavier blow, 
could sink the ax deeper into the wood, than any 
man I ever saw," said a gentleman who Icnevv^ him 
at that time. 

It was wh.ile employed at the ferry, or during 
the time when he worked there (1827), that the 
following incident occurred, which Mr. Lincoln 
thoueht enouoh of to relate to the members of 
his Cabinet many years afterward, w^hile he was 
the President of the United States. 

They were in the President's room at the 
White House, and talking over old times, when 
Lincoln said : " Seward, you never licard, did you, 
how I earned my first dollar?" 

" No," said Mr. Seward. " I never heard any- 
thing about it." 

" Well," he said, " I was about eighteen years 
of age, and belonged, as you know, to what they 
call down South the ' scrubs.' People who do 



LINXOLN IN STORY I5 

not own slave or land are nobody there ; but we 
had raised, chiefly by my own labor, enough prod- 
uce [corn, wheat, turnips, pumpkins, eggs, and 
chickens], as I thought, to pay taking it down the 
river to sell it. After much persuasion I got the 
consent of my mother to go, and had built a flat- 
boat large enough to take a few barrels of things 
we had gathered to New Orleans. A steamer was 
going down the river that morning. As we had 
no docks in those days along the river, passengers 
or freight for steamboats had to be taken out in 
little flatboats. 

** That morning I went down to the river to 
look over my new boat, and wondering whether I 
could make it stronger or better, when two men 
with trunks came down to the shore in carriages, 
and looking at the different boats, picked out mine 
and asked, 'Who owns this boat?' I answered 
modestly, * I do.' * Will you,' said one of them, 
* take us and the trunks out to the steamer ? * 

" ' Certainly,' said I. I was glad to have the 
chance of earning something, and thought each 
of them might give me a couple of * bits ' [a 
"bit" was twelve and a half cents], • The trunks 
were put on my boat, the men seated themselves 
on them, and I sculled them out to tlie slcarner. 

*'They got on board, and I li.ljd tlic trunks 
and put then) on deck, 'ihe st'>?.-aer was about 



16 LINCOLN IN STORY 

to put on steam again, when I called out, * You 
liave forgotten to pay me.' Each, then, took 
from his pocket a silver half dollar threw it in the 
bottom of my boat. I could scarcely believe my 
< yes as I picked up the money. You may think 
it a very little thing- in these days, and it seems 
to me now like a trifle, but it was an important 
incident in my life. I could hardly think that the 
poor boy had earned a dollar in less than a 
c'ay — that by honest work I had earned a dollar. 
The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I 
was a hopeful boy from that time." 

A Poor Man saved from Death 

In this same year (1S27), one very cold night 
in the winter, Lincoln and a friend were going 
home from Gentryville, vv'licre they had been 
■luring the day, when they found an acquaintance 
lying on the ground. He appeared to be asleep; 
ihey could not awaken him, and he could not 
v/alk. He was as helpless as a babe, having 
been drinking so much that lie was " dead drunk.'* 

Lincoln said to h.is companion, " Let's carry 
\ im to Hank's cabin ; he'll freeze to death if we 
• :ave him here." 

But his friend refused to help him, and so 
Lincoln alone fk.ally lifted liijii to his shoulder 
ruvd carried him a long distance, nearly a mile, 



LINCOLN IN STORY if 

to the first house on the road. Here he warmed 
him and brought him back to consciousness. 

I'he poor man often said, " Abe Lincoln's 
strength and kindness saved my life." 

In March, 1828, Mr. Gentry, who had em- 
|)l())'cd Lincoln at his ferry, fitted out a boat with 
; rain and meat for New Orleans. His son Allen 
\.as in charge, and "Abe" was hired to go along 
: s " bow " hand, his waives beincr eio^ht dollars 
|v. r month. This was a great event in his life 
at ihcit time. He had a chance to see something 
01 the world. 



CHAPTER V 

Lincohi rescues the pet do^^— lUiilds a log house — Splits 
rails — Again goes to New Orleans — 1\( turns to New 
Salem— Clerk for Mr. Offut— Helps to save three men 
from drowning. 

In March, 1830, the famih' moved from Indiana 
to Illinc^is. Abrab.am was just past twenty-one years 
of age, and a great tail man. The journey was 
long and tedious, heavy rain, and swollen streams 
r("n 'erin;.^ tlicir progress ver)' slow. They had, in 
:r(:nt of iheir covered wagon, a team of eight oxen 
which Abraham dro\c, and a pet dog went along, 



1:8 LINCOLN IN STORY 

trotting under the wagon much of the time. 

One day the little fellow fell behind, and failed 
to catch up till after they had crossed quite a 
large stream. Then missing him, they looked 
back, and there, on the opposite bank, he stood, 
whining and jumping about in great distress. The 
water was quite high and running over broken 
edges of the ice, for it was yet early in the spring, 
and the dop" was afraid to cross. It would not 
pay to turn back and ford the stream again, with 
all those oxen and the wagon, just to please the 
dog; and so anxiety to hurry along decided themi 
to cro on and leave the animal to his fate. 
• But Lincoln cculd not endure the idea of leav- 
ing the little fellow behind. So he pulled off his 
boots and socks, rolled up liis trousers, and waded 
across the river, the cold water making his feet 
and legs ache terribly. When he got across, the 
dog jumped up into his face, licking it all over. 

Lincoln took the little fellow up, put him under 
one arm, and carried him over the stream in 
triumph. The dog's frantic leaps of joy, and other 
signs of gratitude, well repaid his rescuer for the 
cold wetting and pain he had suffered ; when they 
got across the stream Lincoln put on his socks 
and boots again, and the little dog ran along by 
his side, harking liis thanks and leaping up now 
and then to lick his hand. 



LINCOLN IN STORY 1 9 

jlbrahain builds a Log Hoicse — Begins luork for 

Himself 

Upon arriving- in Illinois the family settled in 
Mison County, five miles northwest of the town 
of Decatur, on a bluff overlooking the Sangamon 
River. The first months were spent in building a 
log house, clearing a field, planting it, and split- 
ting rails to fence in the place. Almost all of 
this Avork was done by Abraham, his father doing 
very little. Being nov/ of age, Abraham (who 
hereafter we shall speak of as Mr. Lincoln) sought 
work for himself 

He split three thousand rails for one man alone, 
walking three miles every da}^ to his work. 

In March of the next year, Lincoln, John Hanks, 
and John Johnson hired out to a Mr. Denton 
Offut to make a boat and take it down the river 
to New Orleans. Finishing the boat in four 
weeks, they loaded it with pork in barrels, corn, 
and hogs, and reached a point opposite New 
Salem, April 19th, where the boat struck on Rut- 
ledge's mill-dam. 

Here it hung helplessly a day and night, when 
finally Lincoln's ingenuity got it over successfully, 
and they floated down to the Illinois River, thciKe 
into the Mississippi, and so reached New Orleans. 
It was here that Lincoln for the second time wit- 



20 LINCOLN IN STORY 

nessed the horrors of slavery, being present at an 
auction sale in which colored girls were sold like 
cattle. He was so diso^usted and indiornant with 
the spectacle that he then took a vow to work 
with all his might against it. 

He now returned to his father's new home in 
Coles County, Illinois, and accepted a challenge 
from a famous wrestler, Daniel Needham, going 
to Wabash Point, where the contest took place. 
Lincoln came off the victor, throwing his man 
twice, and thus proving his superiority as an 
athlete by exhibiting powers of strength and en- 
durance of which he was always proud. 

Returning to New Salem, he took any work 
which offered, became clerk of an election board, 
and made a great many friends by telling funny 
stories. Finally, Mr. Denton Offut hired him to 
take charge of his store. 

It was during this time, in the spring of 1831, 
before starting for New Orleans with his boat, 
that Lincoln played a prominent part in an affair 
that came very near ending in the death of three 
men. A Mr. John Roll, who lived in New Salem 
at the time, witnessed the incident, and frequently 
related it afterward. 



LINCOLN IX STORY Z\ 

Mr, John Rolls N'arrative 

An exciting adventure — Lincoln helps to save 
the lives of three men. 

" It was in the spring after the deep snow, 
Walter Carman, John Seamon, and myself had 
helped 'Abe' in building; the boat for Mr. Offut, 
and when he had finished, we went to work to make 
a * dugout , or canoe to be used as a small boat 
with the flatboat. We found a good log quite a 
ways up the river, and with our axes went to 
work under Lincoln's direction." 

The river was very high and running swiftly. 
After the " dugout " was ready they took it to the 
edge of the water and made ready to push her 
off, when, as the boat struck the water, Carman 
and Seamon jumped into it, each in a spirit of 
fun, wanting to get the first ride. As they shot 
out from the shore they found they were unable 
to make headway against the strong current, and 
Lincoln shouted, " Head up the stream and work 
back to shore ! " 

But against the strong current they could do 
nothing. At last they began to pull for the wreck 
of an old fiatboat wliich had sunk in the river a 
long time before, leaving a pole sticking out of 
the water. Just as xXwy reached it Seamon made 
a grab and caught hold of the pole ; but the canoe 



22 LINCOLN IN STORY 

turned over, throwing Carman into the water, 
leaving the other man hanging to the pole, 
Quicker than it takes to tell, the . swift current 
carried Carm.an dovv^n-stream. 

Lincoln raised his voice above tlie roar of the 
water, and shouted : " Swim for the elm-tree down 
there ! You can catch it ! Don't get excited I 
Catch hold of a branch ! " 

The tree stood out in the stream, which by the 
flood had risen up to its branches, and Carman, 
being a good swimmer, caught a branch and 
pulled himself up out of the water, which was 
very cold, and had almost chilled him to death. 
There he sat in the tree shivering and chattering 
like a monkey. 

Lincoln, seeing that Carman was safe for the 
present, now called out to Seamon : " Let go the 
pole, and swim to the tree. You can't hang on 
there much longer, and if you do you'll be too 
weak to swim ! " 

Seamon did'nt like to get into the cold water, 
but he knew Lincoln was right, and so he let go 
and dropped into the river. Lincoln called out : 
" That's right ! Keep your breath ! Don't worry ; 
you'll get there all right ! There now, look out ! 
Catch the branch ! " Just as he got to the tree 
he reached out for it, but missed. 

Lincoln, and several who had gathered on the 



LINXOLN IN STORY 23 

bank, held their breath in horror, for the man 
went under the water and they thought he would 
drown. But he came up again and made one 
more desperate effort, which was successful, and 
he soon climbed up into the tree beside Carman. 

Things were getting exciting now, and nearly 
all the people in the village came running down 
to the place ; the two men were in the tree, wet 
and freezing, surrounded by a raging stream, the 
boat lost. 

Lincoln called out, *' Keep up your spirits, boys, 
and we'll save you." And again : '' Try and keep 
your legs and arms moving as much as you can ! 
Rub yourselves so as not to get cold ! " 

Lincoln now got a rope and tied it to a big 
log that lay near by. He called everybody to 
come and help roll it into the w^ater, and after 
this was done, he, with the help of several others, 
towed it some distance up the stream. 

A daring young fellow by the name of "Jim" 
Dorrell then took his seat on the log, and it Vv^as 
pushed out into the river. 

Lincoln said: "Now, Jim, we'll let you float 
down to the tree, and then you are to liang on 
to the branches and let Carman and Seam on get 
on ; then we'll draw you all ashore." 

Lincoln directed the log so that it come to the 
tree just as was intended; but "Jim," in hi> haste 



^4 LINCOLN IN STORV 

to help his friends, fell a victim to his own good* 
will. Makini^ a frantic grab at a branch, he raised 
liiinself foolislily off tlie log, which was at once 
swept from under hiin l)y the swift current, and 
he was soon percliing in the tree with the other 
two men. 

The excitement on shore rapidly increased ;: 
here were three men now to be saved instead of 
two. 

Lincoln then pulled the log back up-strean\ 
and, getting another piece of rope, called out to 
tb.e men in the tree : 

"Catch this if you can when I throw it to yc^u, 
for I am coming m)'self tliis time." He then 
took his seat on the log and said : *' Now push it 
off as far as you can, and let the rope be loo;^e 
until I reach the tree ; then don't |)ull on it tigh.l, 
but be ready to do as I tell you." 

Lincoln soon reached the tree, and, keeping a 
cool head, he threw th:? rope over the end of a 
broken limb and caught the other end in h.is 
hands. Then he pulled the rope tight, and pretty 
soon had the log and himself up under the tree 
where the men were sitting. 

" Now, cart fully," said Lincoln, " one at a tim{\ 
I'll hold the log steady, while you drop down on 
her." 

The men were so cold and benumbed already 



LIKCOLN IN STORY 25 

that they could liardly move, but they soon man- 
aged to get on the log with Lincoln. 

Then he called to those on shore ; '' Hold the 
rope tight now ; well swing off, and the current 
will bring us pretty close to tho bank." They 
shouted '' All right ! " and Lincoln let go the rope 
which was around the tree. 

It proved exactly as he had said ; the log, with 
all four men on it, floated over to the shore, and 
in a few minutes they were safe on land. The 
excited people, who had watched the brave act, 
now broke into loud cheers for ''Abe" Lincoln; 
and he at once became a hero alono: the Sano-amon 
River, where they never tired of telling the story. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Lincoln and the ** Clary's Grove boys " — He walks six 
miles to return six cents— Chops up a house for a bare- 
footed man — The Black Hawk War — Lincoln elected 
captain — He saves the life of a friendly Indian. 

After Lincoln's return from New Orleans, and 
wdiile he was still a clerk for Mr. Offut, an 
episode occurred which settled his standing in the 
community most effectually. 

About five miles from New Salem was a littl 



26 LINCOLN IN STORY 

village called Clary's Grove. The young men in 
the place were known as the " Clary's Grove 
boys." They w^ere a terror to the neighborhood, 
doing many reckless tricks "just for fun," but 
they were good-natured and friendly, not meaning 
really to do any one an injury, 

They wanted everybody to know that the 
"Clary's Grove boys" were the smartest, the best 
runners, the best wrestlers, could jump higher, 
and throw farther than anybody else. Mr. Offut, 
Lincoln's employer, felt very proud of his clerk. 
His strength, his cleverness in telling stories, and 
his superior knowledge Mr. Offut often boasted 
of. He said he knew Lincoln could lift more, 
run faster, out-throw, and out- wrestle the " Clary's 
Grove boys " or any one else in the county. 

The " Clary's Grove boys " consequently felt it 
their duty to prove their superiority over Offut's 
clerk, and selected Jack Armstrong to " throw 
Abe." Armstrong ^' was as strong as an ox, 
and, they claimed, " the best man that ever lived." 

Lincoln did not like to " tussle and scuffle," and 
** wooling and pulling " were also objectionable to 
him ; but Mr. Offut had said so much that he felt 
in honor bound to accept the challenge. 

So one fine day a wrestling match was arranged 
near Mr. Offut's store, and all the people for 
miles around came to see the fun. Almost every- 



LINCOLN IN STORY 2/ 

body was betting- that Armstrong would beat ** the 
long, thin fellow, Abe Lincoln " ; but as soon as 
they began to wrestle it was plain that, for once, 
the " Clary's Grove boy " had met his match. 

The two men wrestled long and hard, but both 
kept their feet. Neither could throw the other, 
and Armstrong, finally getting angry at Lincoln's 
endurance, tried a " foul." Lincoln at once saw 
his game, and quick as a flash, and furious with 
indignation, he caught him by the throat, held 
him out at arm's length, and shook him as a dog 
might shake a rat. 

Armstrong's friends rushed forward to help him, 
although they knew he had done wrong, and for 
a minute it looked as though Lincoln would be 
overcome by force of numbers. But, facing the 
whole crowd, he backed toward the store and 
bravely defied them. 

His resolute and courageous manner, as well 
as his great strength, won their admiration at 
once ; and what bid fair to end in a general fight, 
turned finally into a friendly hand-shaking all 
around, even Jack Armstrong declaring that 
'' Lincoln was the best fellow that ever came to 
that town." Armstrong afterward proved himself 
a true friend to Lincoln, welcomino^ him to his 
home and treating him with great hospitality and 
consideration. 



28 LINCOLN IN STORY 

Lincobts Honesty — He walks six Miles to return 

Six Cents 

One nio^ht after closincr the store, when Lincoln 
was counting up the money he found he had six 
cents too much. After thinking" it over a loner 
time, he remembered how he had made the 
mistake in . makinof chanofe for a woman who had 
bought a lot of things of him that day. As soon 
as he locked up the store he started out to find 
this woman, determined to return the money that 
night before going to bed. She lived three miles 
in the country ; but it was a nice clear night, the 
stars were shining brightly, and Lincoln walks out 
to the farmhouse, gave the woman the money, 
explained the mistake, and returned home happy 
to think he had clone what was right, though he 
had gone on foot six miles to do it. 

At another time he weighed out a half pound 
of tea — at least he thought he did. It was at 
night, just before closing up the store, and the 
place was quite dark. The next morning, on 
entering the store, he found a four-ounce weight 
on the scales instead of the eight-ounce, which he 
thought he had Used ; so he knew he had given 
but half as much to his customer as he had taken 
pay for. He at once weighed out four ounces 
more, closed up the store, and hurried off to 
deliver the balance of the tea. 



LINCOLN IN STORY 29 

Lincoln ''chops 7ip'' a Honse and gives comfo'/t to 
a Barefooted y SJiivering Man 

Mr. Lamon, in his Life of Lincoln, tells a good 
story illustrating his disposition to relieve suffering : 

''While living in New Salem, one cold day in 
winter, Lincoln saw a poor fellow named Ab 
Trent hard at work ' chopping up ' a house which 
Mr. Hill had employed him to convert into fire- 
wood. 

" Ab was barefooted, and shivered pitifully while 
he worked. 

" Lincoln watched him a few minutes and said : 

" ' Ab, how much are you to get for this job ? ' 

" Ab answered, ' I am to have a dollar,' and, 
pointing to his naked feet, added, ' I am going to 
buy a pair of shoes ! ' 

'' ' Let me have that ax,' said Lincoln. ' Now 
you go and get Vv^arm at the nearest fire, while I 
finish the job for you.' 

*' So saying, Lincoln seized the ax and chopped 
up the house so fast that Mr. Hill and Ab were 
amazed when they saw it done. 

" Ab always remembered this of kindness with 
the liveliest gratitude. 

" He afterwerd tried to vote for Lincoln, though 
he belonged to the opposite party, but his acquaint- 



^b LINCOLN IN STORY 

ances got him drunk and then made him vote 
against him." 

Hoiu Lincoln zuas elected Captain — How he managed 
to get his Company '' Endwise " 

Mr. Offut's store was soon closed up, and again 
Lincohi was out of employment. About this 
time, when Lincoln was twenty-three years old, 
the Indians, under '' Black Hawk," came back into 
the State of Illinois, and all the people living on 
farms and in small settlements fled in a panic to 
the forts and larger towns for protection. The 
Governor of the State called for volunteers, and 
Lincoln, with a number of young men from New 
Salem, enlisted to fight the Indians. 

There was a man in the company by the name 
of Kirkpatrick, who wanted to be captain. This 
man owed Lincoln two dollars for moving a lot of 
heavy logs, and when the election for captain oc- 
curred at Beardstown, 111., Lincoln said to a friend 
(a Mr. William Greene), " Bill, I believe I can 
now pay Kirkpatrick for that two dollars he owes 
me for moving those big logs. I'll run against him 
for captain." The vote was taken in a field, the 
men being commanded to gather around the one 
they wanted for their captain. When the order 
was given, three fourths of the men gathered about 
Lincoln, to his own surprise, and he was thus 



Lincoln in storV 31 

elected captain. Years afterward, when lie had 
become President, Lincoln said " he had never 
since then met with any success which gave him 
so much satisfaction." 

Lincoln knew nothing of military rules, and 
many years afterward he told many amusing 
stories of his experience as a soldier. 

One day he was drilling the men^ and they 
were marching with twenty men fronting in line 
across a field, when he wished to pass through a 
gate into the next field. 

*' I could not for the life of me," said Lincoln, 
" remember the proper word of command for get- 
ting my company ' endwise ' so that it could get 
through the gate ; so, as we came near the gate, 
I shouted : 

"'This company is dismissed for two minutes, 
when it will fall in again on the other side of the 
gate!'" 

After he became President, Lincoln frequently 
enjoyed telling this story. 

Lincoln risks his Life to save a Defenselss Lndian 

Lincoln's company had no chance to fight in 
the war, and did not take part in any battle ; but 
wdiile on the field expecting to be ordered at any 
moment to march against the savages, Lincoln 
acted in a most lieroic and honorable mamner in 



32 LINCOLN IN STORY 

saving the life of a good and friendly Indian. It 
came about in this way : 

" One day there came into the camp a poor, 
old hungry Indian, without any weapon on his 
person. He had with him a pass from the general 
in command, which proved that he was a good 
and friendly Indian ; but this he forgot to show 
at first. 

"The soldiers, who had learned to hate all 
Indians, suspected liim as a spy ; and, angry be- 
cause the Indians had killed so many white people, 
they were about to kill him. 

" When the old Indian saw their intention by 
their angry manner (for he could not understand 
their talk), he remembered the pass for safe con- 
duct which he had with liim, and brought it out 
and showed it to them. 

" But the men were blind with rage ; they had 
come a good many miles to fight Indians, and this 
was the first one they had seen. They had made 
up their minds to kill Indians, and were not to 
be cheated out of their revenge by little piece 
of paper signed by their conmianding general. 
ISesides, it might be a forgery, and not the real 
writing of the general. So they said they did 
ri( t believe it v;as a real true pass, and cried out: 
'Let us shoot him! Let us shoot him!' 

'' About a dozen soldiers grasped their guns, 



LINCOLN IN STORY 3^ 

and cocking them, started to shoot him. Th y 
held already raised their weapons and were just 
about to fire, when Captain Lincoln, who had 
heard the noise, came upon them. He rushed 
forward, shoutiug out : * Hold on ! hold on ! don't 
fire! I command you to stop!' And, springing 
in front of the men, he knocked up their guns 
with his arms and protected the Indian with his 
own body. 

" But the men were not inclined to obey, and 
Lincoln, now thoroughly aroused with eyes full 
^)f defiance, shouted out; 'Are you soldiers! and 
w^ould you murder a poor, defenseless old man? 
hor shame ! for shame ! Such an act would dis- 
grace our State and country ! ' 

"Some soldiers shouted: 'He's a spy! He's 
a spy ! ' 

" ' If he's a spy,' answered Lincoln, ' we wil 
prove it, and he shall suffer death ; but, until that 
is proven, any man who attempts to take his life 
will have to deal with me. Disband and go to 
your quarters; I will answer for his friendship 
myself.' The soldiers n(.>w lowered their guns 
^nd went away, leaving Lincoln witn the old mau 

" The Indian then showed him his pass, which 
Lincoln saw at once was genuine, and so he told 
hirn to go and be free. The poor man could not 
speak his thanks, so he knelt down and kissed the 



34 LINCOLN IN STORY 

feet of his liberator, and with many actions tried 
to show him his gratitude." 



CHAPTER VIL 

Lincoln returns to New Salem — Candidate for the Legis- 
lature — Takes a store and studies law under difficulties 
— Fails in business — Is appointed surveyor — Post- 
mater — Barefooted he studies on a wood-pile — Elect- 
ed to the Legislature — Becomes a lawyer — The 
lightning-rod and Forquer's guilty conscience. 

At the close of the Black Hawk War, Lincoln 
returned to New Salem, and in August announced 
himself a candidate for the Legislature. Out of 
hvo hundred and eight votes in his tozun he received 
all but tJiree, but in the whole district his opponent 
received a majority. 

His defeat in no way discouraged him, for he 
had made a very respectable showing, and the 
almost unanimous vote of New Salem was very 
flattering. 

He now took a store with a partner, purchas- 
ing it on credit. All his spare time was spent in 
reading and studying law, for he had now made 
up his mind he would become a lawyeri 



LINCOLN IN STORY 35 

In 1833 they sold the store out to another 
party. When he was in business, in between 
times, wliiJe waiting on his customers, Lincohi 
read and studied. Sometimes he would oet only 
three or five minutes, and would turn aside from 
* reciting his lessons to wait upon the people with- 
out appearing in the least disturbed. 

Now, while out of business, he became, if possi- 
ble, still more industrious, carrying his book with 
him wherever he went, reading and studying on 
the street, in the field, or in the forest splitting 
rails. 

One day, while in the woods splitting rails, he 
received notice that he had been appointed a sur- 
veyor of lands. This was, indeed, good news to 
him, for it meant three dollars a day in wages — 
quite a large amount in those days. 

Lincoln knew little or nothing of surveying, 
but he borrowed books and the needed appliances 
from Mr. Calhoun, who had appointed him, and 
went to Avork studying hard, with the school 
teacher (Mr. Mentor Graham) to help him. In 
a few w^eeks he reported for duty and made an 
honorable record as a surveyor. In 1833 he was 
appointed postmaster of New Salem. The letters 
were so few that he frequently carried all of them 
in his hat. 



36 . LINCOLN IN STORY 

Lincoln, Barefooted, studies Law on a Wood-pite — ' 
Elected to the Legislature — Becomes a Lawyer 

Before his appointment as postmaster, and while 
he was taking any work that offered, the follow- 
ing episode occurred, showing his determination 
to become a lawyer in spite of his poverty. 

Mr. Herndon, Mr. Lincoln's law partner, relates 
the story as follows : 

"Russell Godby, an old man who was still 
alive in 1865, told me that he often hired Lincoln 
to do farm work for him. One day he was sur- 
prised to find him sitting barefooted on top of 
a wood-oile readino^ a book wdth so much interest 
that he did not notice him till he was close upon 
him. This being a very unusual thing for farm 
hands to do, he said : ' Lincoln, what are you 
reading ? ' 

" * I'm not reading, I'm studying ! ' he answered, 

"'Studying what?' said Godby. 

" * Law, sir ! ' was the quick and positive reply. 

" It was too much for Mr. Godby, as he looked 
at him sitting there, proud as a king, and he 
couldn't help exclaiming, * Good gracious me ! ' as 
he passed on." 



UN'COLN IN STORY 37 

Anne Rutled^e, Lincoln s Betrothed — Her Death 
" The saddest chapter in Lincohi's life." 

Mr. Herndon, in liis Life, relates of his personal 
knowledge the sorrowful story of Lincoln and 
Anne Rutledge, which he terms " the saddest 
chapter in Mr. Lincoln's life," and we glean from 
it briefly the following facts : 

** Anne Rutledge was a beautiful girl, quick of 
apprehension, industrious, an excellent housekeeper, 
and by her modest, winning ways attached people 
to her so firmly that she soon became the most 
popular young lady in the village. .. Lincoln began 
his advances with such success that he was soon 
recognized as her approved suitor. His native 
modesty naturally impeded very rapid progress, 
but he escorted her to cjuilting parties, and at her 
house she would frequently sing for him, while her 
relations all showed that they favored Lincoln's 
suit. Thus eventually she was brouglit to recipro- 
cate his passion, and consented to marry him. 
Then Lincoln's poverty stood in the way ; she 
must cyive him lime to Sfather funds to live on 
until he could complete his law studies. To this 
she consented, and told her friends ' as soon as 
his studies are completed we are to be married.' 
Lincoln's great happiness, the joy of a devoted 



38 LINCOLN IN STORY 

love, the comfort and soothing influence of an 
affectionate caress, for which his soul hungered, 
were never to be reahzed. 

" In the late summer Anne Rutledge was taken 
sick with a burning fever, and soon all hope of her 
recovery was abandoned. A few days afterward 
she died, and the effect on Lincoln is described by 
her brother as ' terrible.' He was plunged in de- 
spair, and wandered up and down the river and 
into the woods wofully and abstractedly, at times 
in the greatest distress, His friends feared he 
would lose his reason, and finally sent him to a 
kind friend, Bowlin Greene, who lived beyond the 
hills a mile south of the town. Here he soon re- 
covered his self-command, and in the years that 
followed he never ceased to be grateful for his 
friend's great kindness." 

Two years after the death of Miss Rutledge, 
Lincoln declared to a fellow-member of the Legis- 
lature that " although he seemed to others to en- 
joy life rapturously, yet when alone he was so 
overcome by mental depression he never dared 
to carry a pocket-knife." And seven years after 
that event, when called upon to speak at the 
grave of Bowlin Greene, he broke down complete- 
ly, and was carried sobbing from the scene. 

That the death of his betrothed produced a 
deep wound and cast a shadow across the soul of 



LINCOLN IN STOR\ 39 

Lincoln which never quite faded, can not be 
doubted. It was his first "grand passion," that 
Hftcd h.im up to the heavenly heights, from which 
h.e w^as plunged to the deepest depths of agony 
and despair ; and thus the second great sorrow of 
jiis life became written upon his face, which sub- 
sequent events were to add to, until it became 
" in repose the saddest face man ever saw." 

In iST'I he was elected to the Legislature, and 
had to borrow money to clothe himself respect- 
ably, so that he could attend the session. Again, 
in 1836, he was elected, and in 1837 he was 
licensed to practise law. John F. Stuart w^as his 
partner. Late in this year he delivered an essay 
before the Young Men's Lyceum in Springfield, 
11!., on the Perpetuation of our Free Institutions, 
which, being published in the Sangamon Journal, 
created a reputation for him beyond the limits of 
that city. 

The Lightnifig-Rod and Forqiiers Gtiilty 
Conscience 

Joshua F. Speed relates that during the cam- 
paign for the Legislature of 1836 Lincoln made 
a telling speech a few days before election. 

" The crowed was large, many friends and ad- 
mirers coming in from the country. The speech 
produced a profound impression ; the crowd was 



40 LINCOLN IN STORY 

wkli him, George Forquer, an old and respected 
citizen of ability, was present. He had been a 
Whii^ of prominence, but had recently joined the 
Democratic party, and ahiiost simultaneously had 
been appointed register of the land office. Just 
at this time Mr. Forquer had completed a neat 
frame house — the best house in Springfield at the 
time — and over it erected a lightning-rod, the first 
Mr. Lincoln had ever seen. 

" At the conclusion of Lincoln's speech Mr. 
Forquer arose and asked to be heard. 

*' He commenced thus : 

" ' This young man will have to be taken down, 

and I am sorry the task devolves upon me.' 

" He then proceeded to answer Lincoln's argu- 
ments in an able and fair, but patronizing man- 
ner. Lincoln stood a few s'eps away with arms 
folded, carefully watching a speaker, and taking 
in everything he said. 

" He was laboring under a good deal of sup- 
pressed excitement. Forquer's sting had aroused 
the lion within him. At length Forquer ended, 
and he mounted the stand to reply. 

" His reply was characterized by great dignity 
and force, and I shall never forget the conclusion : 

" * Mr. Forquer commenced his speech by an- 
nouncing that the youug man would have to be 
taken down. It is for you, fellow-citizens, not me, 



LINCOLN IN STORY 4 1 

to say whether I am up or down. The gentleman 
has seen fit to allude to my being a young man, 
but he forgets that I am older in years than in the 
tricks and trades of politicians. 

" ' I desire to live, and I desire place and dis- 
tinction, but I would rather die now than, like the 
gentleman, live to see the day that I would change 
my politics for an office worth three thousand dol- 
lars a year, and then feel compelled to erect a 
lightning-rod to protect a guilty conscience from 
an offended God.' " 



CHAPTER YIII. 

Arrival in Springfield — Odd campaigning experiences— 
The blue sock and Government money — The mar- 
riage of Lincohi — His partnerships —Speeches for 
Clay — Elected to Congress — Saving two young men 
from dishonesty. 

Mr. Joshua Speed, a very dear friend of Lin- 
coln's, relates in the following manner how at this 
time Lincoln made his first appearance as a lawyer 
in Springfield, with the intention of making it his 
permanent residence : 

*' He had ridden into town on a borrowed 
horse, with no earthly property save a pair of sad- 
dle-bags containing a few clothes. I was then a 



42 LINCOLN IN STORY 

merchant at Springfield, and kept a country store, 
selling pretty nearly everything that might be 
wanted in the country. 

'* Lincoln came into the store with his saddle- 
bags under his arm. He said he wanted to buy 
the furniture for a single bed. The blankets, 
mattress, coverlids, sheets, and pillow, according to 
my prices, would cost seventeen dollars. 

** * Perhaps that's cheap enough,' said Lincoln, 
but, small as the price is, I am unable to pay it. 
But,' he added, * if you will give me credit till 
Christmas-time, and my experiment as a lawyer 
succeeds, I will pay you then.' 

" * Well,' I said, * suppose you don't succeeds.' 

"In the saddest possible tone of voice he re- 
plied, ' If I fail in this, I do not know that I can 
ever pay you.' 

'' As I looked up at him, I thought then, and I 
think now, that I never saw a sadder face. 

► " I said to him, * You seem to be so much 
pained at making so small a debt, I think I can 
suggest a plan by which you can avoid the debt, 
and at the same time attain your end/ 

" ' Do you really think so ? ' said Lincoln, his 
face brightening somewhat. 

" * Yes,' said I, ' I have a large room with a 
double bed up-stairs which you are very welcome 
to share with me/ 



LINCOLN IN STORY 43 

** ' Where is the room ? ' said he. 

" ' Up-stairs,' said I, pointing to a pair of wind- 
ing stairs which led from the store to my room. 
He took liis saddle-bags on his arm, went up- 
stairs, set them on the floor, and came down 
with the most changed expression on his face. 
Looking very happy, he exclaimed : 

*' ' Well, Speed, I'm moved ! ' " 

Another friend took him to board without pay, 
and so, with the help of good, kind-hearted people, 
Lincoln began life as a lawyer in Spring-field, 

Story of Lincoln s Campaign Expenses^ Seve7ity-five 

Cents 

In these days when honesty in political matters 
is so rare, and when each candidate spends so 
much of his own or other people's money to get 
elected to an office, it may be well to turn back 
the pages of history and read of the days when 
honesty as well as ability was rewarded in the 
field of politics. . 

In 1838 there was a very exciting election in 
Illinois, and Lincoln for the second time was 
chosen for the Legislature by his party (the 
Whigs). A number of his friends gathered to- 
gether and gave him two hundred dollars to pay 
his expenses. After the election was over and 
Lincoln had been successful, he handed back to 



44 LINCOLN IN STORY 

his friend, Mr. Speed, the sum of one hundred 
and ninety-nine dollars and twenty-five cents, with 
the request that he give it back to those who 
had given it to him. He said : " I did not need 
the money ; I made the canvass on my own 
horse ; my entertainment [board] being at the 
home of friends, cost nothing ; and my only out- 
lay was seventy-five cents for a barrel of cider 
which some farm laborers insisted I should treat 
them to ! " 

What a contrast this story of simplicity and 
honesty furnishes to the extravagance and dishon- 
esty that prevails in politics to-day! Can v. e 
wonder that Lincoln was loved and admired by 
all who knew him, and that they got in the habit 
of calling him '' Honest Old Abe," by wliich name 
he became generally known, and was afterward 
elected President of the United States ? 

Lincoln demands Free Speech for a Friend loho 
zvas about to be Alobbed 

It was during the preceding canvass that Mr. 
Lincoln interfered and protected his friend E. D. 
Baker from the fury of his opponents, This 
gentleman was speaking to a crowd in the court- 
room, which was immediately under Lincoln and 
Stuart's law office. Just over the platform on 
which the speaker stood was a trap-door in the 



LINCOLN IN STORY 45 

floor. Lincoln at the time, as was often his habit, 
was lying on the floor, looking down tlirough this 
hole at the speaker. Baker, getting wanned up, 
made a sweeping charge against his opponent, 
which angered many in the crowd, and the cry of 
" Pull him down ! Pull him dowai ! " was followed 
by a forward movement of the men. Baker, his 
face pale with excitement squared himself to meet 
the on-rushing and maddened men with a stout 
resistance, when, in the midst of the noise and 
confusion, a pair of long legs, w^th big feet, were 
seen dangling from the ceiling (where the trap- 
door was) over the platform, and in a moment the 
figure of Lincoln dropped upon the floor. Picking 
up a water-pitcher in an attitude of defense, he 
shouted, " Hold on, gentlemen ! This is a land of 
free speech. Mr. Baker has a right to be heard. I 
am here to protect him, and no man shall take 
him from this stand if I can prevent it." Imme- 
diately quiet was restored, and Baker was allowed 
to resume his speech. 

Hozu Lincoln won the Farmer s Wife while his 
Opponent milked the Cozv 

In tliose days when men wanted to get an 
office, botli the Republican and Democratic candi- 
dates traveled together around the country from 
town to town, stopping at farmhouses in between 



46 LINCOLN IN STORY 

and talking to the people, trying to make friends 
and oret them to vote for them. 

A good story is told that shows Lincoln's clev- 
erness, and how, at this time, during one of his 
electioneering tours, he won the favor of a farmer's 
wife, whose husband was a very important man 
in that county, t;-^ 

One afternoon Lincoln and his opponent rode 
up to this farmer's house on horses, which they 
put out in the barn themselves, the husband being 
away in a distant field at work. The good farm- 
er's wife invited them to take supper and stay 
overnight, as was customary. Now, each man 
wanted to win the good- will of the lady, because 
she, of course, had a strong influence over her 
husband ; but for quite a while neither seemed to 
succeed very well. 

Finally it came time to milk the cows, and the 
woman, taking her pail, started for the barn-yard. 
Mr. Ewing (Lincoln's companion and opponent) 
now saw his chance, and, following quickly, he 
took the pail from her hand and insisted upon 
milking the cow himself He thought by thus 
helping the woman to do her work he would 
surely win her good-will ; and so he sat down and 
commenced milking, chuckling to himself how he 
had got the better of '^ Abe Lincoln." Once in a 
while he would speak to the lady, who stood by 



LINCOLN IN STORY 47 

the fence looking on ; but after a time, receiving 
no reply from her, he looked around only to see 
the woman and Lincoln leaning comfortably on 
the fence, and talking in a most friendly manner. 
Mr. Ewing now was naturally disgusted with him- 
self, for there he had to sit and finish his task, 
while Lincoln was having a good time chatting 
with the lady, and captivating her with his amus- 
ing stories. 

When Mr. Ewinof finished, the farmer's wife 
" added insult to injury " by thanking him most 
heartily, not only for milking the cow, but also 
for " giving her a chance to have such a pleasant 
talk with Mr. Lincoln!" 

A Pig, stuck in the Ahtd, is rescued by Lincoln 

While Lincoln was practising law he used to 
go from one town to another to try cases before 
different courts. There were no railroads in those 
days, and traveling '' on the circuit " (going 
around from court to court) was done mostly on 
horseback. 

One day, when several lawyers besides Mr. 
Lincoln were traveling in this way, they came to 
a very muddy place in the road, and at one side, 
near the rail fence, was a poor pig stuck fast, and 
squealing as loud as possible. 

The men thought this very funny, and laughed 



48 LINCOLN IN STORY 

..t the unfortunate pig ; but Lincoln said, '' Let us 
stop and help the poor thing out." 

" Oh, Abe," said one, '' you must be crazy ! 
Your clothes would look pretty after you had 
lifted that dirty pig up, wouldn't they ? " 

The others all poked fun at Lincoln, and so 
they rode on until they were out of sight and 
liearing of the suffering beast. 

Lincoln rode on with them also, but little by 
little he went slower. He was thinking about the 
I)ig, and the farmer who owned him. He thought : 
" What a pity for him to lose that pig ; he can't 
afford it ! It means shoes for his little children to 
wear next winter." And then the memory of that 
pitiful squeal kept ringing in his ears. So, after 
going quite a long distance with the other gentle- 
men, Lincoln turned his horse and rode back all 
alone, to see if he could get the pig out. He 
found the poor thing still deeper than before in 
the mud and mire. So he took some rails from 
off the fence, and putting them down by the 
squealing animal, made a safe footing to stand on. 
Then he took two other rails, and, putting them 
under the pig, pried him up out ot the mud until 
he could reach him with his hands. Then he 
took hold of him, and, pulling him out, placed 
him on the dry land. 

As the pig ran grunting off toward his home, 



LINCOLN IN STORY 49 

Lincoln looked at his soiled clothes with a satisfied 
smile, as much as to sa)', '' Well, a little water 
and brushing will soon make the clothes look 
clean again, and I don't care if the other fellows 
do laugh at me ; the pig's out of his misery, and 
Farmer Jones's children won't have to go bare- 
footed next winter." 

The Old Blue Sock a? id Government Money held 

in Trust 

One of the incidei^.ts which contributed to 
Lincoln's fame for integrity, and won for him the 
sobriquet of '' Honest Abe," occurred in connec- 
tion with the closing up of his affairs as post- 
master at New vSalem, 

On May 7, 1833, he was appointed postmaster, 
and kept the place until it was discontinued. The 
balance of money in his hands which belonged to 
the Government was between sixteen and eighteen 
dollars. This small amount was overlooked by 
the post-office department and not called for until 
several years after Lincoln had removed to Spring- 
field. 

During these years he had been very poor — 
so poor, indeed, that he had been compelled to 
borrow money of friends for the necessities of 
life. 

One day an agent of the post-office called at 



50 LINCOLN IN STORY 

Mr. Henry's, with whom Lincoln at that time kept 
his office. 

" Knowing Lincohi's poverty," Mr. Henry after- 
ward related, " and how often he had been obliged 
to borrow money, I did not believe he had the 
funds on hand to meet the draft, and was about 
to call him aside and loan it to him, when he 
asked the ag^ent to be seated a moment. He 
then went over to his boarding-house and returned 
with an old blue sock with a quantity oi silver 
and copper coin tied up in it. 

" Untying the sock, he poured out the contents 
on the table and proceeded to count it, and the 
exact sum (and the identical coin) was found 
which years before he had received for postage- 
stamps from his friends in Salem. 

*' All the intervening years the money had been 
placed aside in an old trunk, and, no matter how 
much he needed money, he never thought of using 
that which he held in trust for the Government. 
He never used trust fluids!' 

Tzvo Littte Birds returned to their Nest 

Lincoln's great kindness of heart and his ex- 
treme sensitiveness to the pain and suffering of 
others, even of animals, or any living thing, are 
well k "lown. We are indebted to his old Spring- 
field friend Mr. Speed, for the following incident, 



LINCOLN IN STORY 5 I 

illustrating this trait of his character which so 
endeared him to his friends : 

He, with several members of the bar from 
Springfield, had been attending court at Chris- 
tiansburg, and Mr. Speed was riding with them 
toward the Capitol. There was quite a party of 
lawyers riding two by two along a country lane, 
and Lincoln and Hardin brought up the rear of 
the cavalcade. Mr. Speed relates : 

" We had passed through a thicket of wild 
plum and crab-trees and stopped to water our 
horses, when Hardin came up alone. 

*' ' Where is Lincoln ? ' we all inquired. 

" * Oh,' replied he, * when I saw him last he 
had caught two young birds which the wind had 
blown out of their nest, and he was hunting for 
the nest to put them back.' 

** In a short time Lincoln came up, having 
found the nest and placed the young birds in it. 
The party laughed at him, but he said : 

*'' I could not have slept if I had not restored 
those little birds to their mother.'" 

Lincoln marries — Partner of Logan ; of Herndon — 
Makes Speeches for Clay — Elected to Congress 

On November 4, 1842, Mr. Lincoln married 
Miss Mary Todd at Springfield. This same year 
he enlisted in the temperance movement. The 



52 LINCOLN IN StORV 

year before (1841) Lincoln had retired from the 
partnership with Stuart, who had been elected to 
Con<^ress, and associated himself wqth S. T. Logan. 
In 1843 he severed this connection because Mr. 
Locran as well as himself aspired to be sent to 
Congress. He then took Mr. Herndon as partner, 
but did not succeed in s^ettino^ the nomination to 
Congress. In 1844 he was a presidential elector, 
and made campaign speeches throughout Illinois 
for Clay and Polk ; was nominated for Congress 
May I, 1846, and elected. He opposed the Mexi- 
can War, considering it a war of conquest, unjust 
and unnecessary. 

On July 19, 1848, he wrote his partner a letter, 
in which the following wise sentence occurs : 

" The way for a young man to rise is to im- 
prove himself every way he can, never suspecting 
that anybody wishes to hinder him." He made 
speeches for Taylor in New England, also in Illi- 
nois, and after Taylor's election he introduced a 
bill in Congress looking to the emancipation of 
the slaves in the District of Columbia. It received 
no consideration. He was offered the position of 
Governor of the Territory of Oregon by President 
Taylor, but declined, and returned to his home in 
Springfield to practise law. 



LINCOLN IN STORY 53 

Lincoln s Eloquent Appeal compel Two Young Men 
to pay for a V^eajn of Oxen, though the Law 
rendered them, as Minors, not Liable for the Bill 

Mr. Herndon, Lincoln's partner, relates that 
in the spring of 1847 Lincoln, then a Congn ss- 
man, was employed by an old man by the name 
of Case to collect a note of two hundred dollars 
signed by Snow brothers, who, pleading the minor 
act, refused to pay it. 

The brothers did not deny the note, but, through 
their lawyer, pleaded that they were minors, and 
that old Mr. Case knew that fact when they 
gave him the note. Lincoln admitted all this, 
saying, '* Yes, gentlemen, I reckon that's so." The 
minor act was read to the jury, and every one 
thought that Lincoln had given his case away, 
and would submit to the injustice to his client in 
silence, because the law plainly stated that minors 
could not be held liable for debt. Lincoln, however, 
arose, and in a quiet tone said : 

*' Gentlemen of the jury, are you willing to 
allow these boy to begin life with this shame and 
disgrace attached to their characters ? If yon are, 
I am not. The best judge of human nature that 
ever wrote has left these immortal words for all 
of us to ponder : 



54 LINCOLN IN STORY 

" * Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, 
Is the immediate jewel of their souls : 
Who steals my purse steals trash ; 'tis something, 

nothing ; 
•Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands: 
But he that filches from me my good name, 
Robs me of that which not enrlohes him, 
And makes me poor indeed.' " 

Then, rising to his full height, and looking 
down upon the young men with the compassion of 
a brother, his long right arm pointing to the op- 
posing lawyers, he continued : 

" Gentlemen of the jury, these poor innocent 
boys would never have attempted this low villainy 
had it not been for the advice of these men." He 
then showed how the noble science of law might 
be prostituted, and with a scathing rebuke to those 
who thus belittled their profession, he concluded : 
*' And now, gentlemen, you have it in your power 
to set these boys right before the world," 

Thus, pleading for the boys and their good 
name, he left the case to the jury, which without 
leaving their seats decided that the boys must pay 
the debt ; and the latter, after listening to Mr. 
Lincoln, were, willing and glad to do it. 



LINCOLN IN STORY 55 

CHAPTER. IX 

Lincoln, the little girl and her trunk — His little son Willie 
runs naked from his bath — The widow's pension case 
— *' Skin Wright and close " — His defense of William 
Armstrong. 

One morning, some time after Lincoln had re- 
turned to Sprlngfiekl to practise as a lawyer, while 
he was walking down-town to his office, he noticed 
a little girl standing at the gate In front of her 
house crying as though her heart would break. 
He stopped and asked, " What's the matter, my 
little girl ? " 

'* Oh, Mr. Lincoln ! " she exclaimed between 
her sobs, " I shall miss the train, because the ex- 
pressman has not come to take my trunk as he 
promised." And she burst out crying again. 

" That's too bad, that is too bad," said Lincoln, 
patting her on the head. " Where were you 
going ? " he added. 

She answered, "I was going to visit my aunt 
with a little friend, and It's to be my first trip on 
the cars ; and, oh, I have planned about It and 
even dreamed about It for weeks ! And now It's 
most train time ; my little friend will be waiting 

at the station, and auntie too ; and " Here her 

sobs broke Into her story, and her little body 
shook with the effort of crying so hard. 



S6 LINCOLN IN STORY 

Lincoln was touched. '* How big is the trunk ? 
There's still time, I guess, if it's not too big." 
Saying this, he pushed by the gate and up to the 
door. 

The little girl's mother showed him to the 
room, where there was a little old-fashioned trav- 
elling trunk, locked and tied. 

*' Oh, ho ! " cried Lincoln. " Wipe your eyes, 
and come quick. We'll catch the train yet, I 
guess." 

He picked up the trunk, threw it on his 
shoulder, and strode out through the yard into the 
street, the little girl trotting by his side, and 
drying her eyes as she went. Pretty soon they 
heard the rumbling of the train approaching in 
the distance, and the toot of the whistle. 

" Take my hand, little one," said Lincoln, " and 
we'll get there." So, hastening his steps, carrying 
the trunk on his shoulder and holding the little 
girl's hand, they hurried on and reached the 
station just as the train rolled in. 

Lincoln put the child on the train, kissed her 
good-bye, and cried out, " Now^ have a real good 
time ! " 

Hoza Little 1 Villi e Lijuoln ran away from his Bath 

T2ib 

Lincoln was very fond of his little boys, and 



LINCOLN IN STORY 57 

enjoyed tlicir pranks, often laughing at their 
childish ways. One morning during this period 
of liis life in Springfield, when his son Willie 
was about tliree or four years old, his mother was 
giving him a batk m a big tub ; the little fellow, 
screaming with fun, suddenly jumped away from 
lier and scampered out of doors. 

Mis father was sitting on the front porch read- 
ing the papers, and hearing the noise, looked up, 
bursting into a hearty laugh at the comical sight. 
The little fellow, meanwhile, ran out into the 
street, and crawled under the fence into the field 
of )'(>ung corn that was growing near the house. 

Lincoln sprang up from his seat, watching the 
boy's small pink and white legs twinkle along th^ 
sidewalk and shak'ig with laughter. But his 
enjoyment of the fun was cut short by the mother's 
appearing on the scene, exclaiming : 

'* Run and catch him, dear, and don't stand 
there all day laughing yourself to death. There 
lie goes now in the corn-fieivi," she added; ''run 
quick ! " 

Sure enough, Willie was now running as fast 
as his little legs would carry him in between the 
rows of corn. 

Lincoln then started after him, and the little 
fellow, screaming with delight, ran faster than 
ever. Meanwhile the neighbors had been attracted 



5B LINCOLN IN STORY 

by the noise, and some were looking out of the 
windows and doors of the nearest houses, while 
some stopped on the sidewalk, all laughini^ at the 
chase of the little naked boy bv his ixrcat, tall 
father,^ who was now quite a celebrated nian. It 
took the father but a few minutes with liis long 
strides to catch the runaway, who, when he 
reached him, was laughing in roguish idee. Lin- 
coln picked him up, and covering his rosy litde 
body with many kisses, tossed him on to his 
shoulders, put his legs about his neck, and so 
carried him in triumph back to his mother and 
the tub, to the great amusement of the neighbors. 

Lincoln studies Shakespeare and Poetry 

During the six years following his retirement 
from Congress, Lincoln studied a great deal, de- 
voting much time to poetry and geometry. Shake- 
speare especially attracted him, and when travel- 
ing on the circuit, Lincoln was always the first to 
be up in the morning, many times his room-mates 
and fellow-travelers awakening to find him repeat- 
ing over or committing to memory some verses 
of poetry. 

Tell me. Ye Winged Winds, by Mackey ; Im- 
mortality ; and later. Why Should the Spirit of 
Mortals be Proud, were his favorite poems. Dur- 
ing this period Elmer E. Ellsworth, of Zouave 



LINCOLN IN STORY 59 

fame, was for a short time in Lincoln's office as 
a student of law. 

The Widoivs Pension Case — '* Skin Wris^ht and 



<b 



Close " 



At this time, while Lincoln was thus making 
a great name as a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, 
an old woman, crippled and bent with age, cam^ 
hobbling into the office one day and told the 
story of her suffering and injustice. She related 
how one-half of her pension of four hundred 
dollars, all she had in the world to depend upon, 
had been kept by the pension agent (a Mr. 
Wright), who refused to give her the balance. 

Mr. Lincoln was so stirred up by the recital 
that he at once put on his hat, and, walking over 
to the agent's office, made a demand for a return 
of the money at once. This being refused, 
the suit was immediately brought before the 
court. 

A few days before the trial Lincoln refreshed 
his memory of the Revolutionary War by reading 
some parts of the history over again. 

He said to his partner, Mr. Herndon, before 
the trial : '' You'd better stay until after my 
address to the jury, for I'm going to skin Wright 
and get that money back for the widow." 

After the poor old woman had, through her 



6o LINCOLN IN STORY 

tears, told her story to the jur>* i^incoln arose 
and began his .vldress by recounting the causes 
>ading to the outbreak of the Revolutionary 
struggle. He then drew a vivid picture of the 
hardships at Valley Forge, describing with minute- 
ness the men, barefooted and with bleeding feet, 
creeping over the snow and ice. As he told of 
the cruel treatment of the old lady by the pension 
agent his eyes flashed with indignation, an eye- 
witness stating that ^' he never saw Lincoln so 
wrought up." 

Before he closed his speech he drew an ideal 
picture of the woman's husband, the dead soldier, 
parting widi his wife at the threshold of their 
home, and kissing their little babe in the cradle 
as he started for the war. 

" Time rolls by," he said in conclusion ; '' the 
heroes of '76 have passed away and are encamped 
on the other shore. The soldier has gone to rest, 
and now, crippled, blinded, and broken, the widow 
comes to you and to me, gentlemen of the jury, 
to right her wrongs. She was not always thus : 
she was once a beautiful young woman. ■' Her 
step was elastic, her face was fair, and her voice 
as sweet as any that rang in the mountains of 
old Virginia. But now she is poor and defense- 
less ; out here on the prairies of Illinois, hundreds 
of miles away from the 'Ki^.^es of her childhood, 



LINCOLN IN S'I\3>>?.^ 6l 

she appeals to us, who enjoy the privllciges 
achieved for us by the patriots of the Revolution, 
^or our sympathetic aid and manly protection. 
All I ask is. Shall we befriend her ? " 

At the conclusion half the jurymen were in 
tears, while the pension agent sat, ashamed, 
drawn up, and writliing under Mr. Lincoln's 
fierce invective. The jury returned a verdict 
in favor of the widow, who could not find words 
to express her gratitude to Mr. Lincoln. Lincoln- 
was so mucli interested in the woman that he 
became security for her costs, paid her way home, 
as well as her hotel bill while attending the suit. 
He also sent her the money and would not take 
a penny for bis services. 

Lincoln's notes for the case were as follows : 
" No contract. — Not professional services. — Un- 
reasonable charge. — Money retained by the agent 
not given by the widow. — Revolutionary War. — 
Describe Valley Forge privations. — Ice. — Soldiers* 
bleeding feet. — The woman's husband. — Skin 
Wright. — Close. " 

Lincoln s Defense of Williant Arntstrong 

By this time Lincoln & Herndon had become 
one of the best-known and most reliable law firms 
in the State of Illinois:. 

Their services were in great demand, not only 



62 LINCOLN IN STORV 

because of the well-i^nown shrewdness of Mr. 
Lincoln, but also be:ause of his honesty, his 
truthfuhiess, and absolute reliability. Before enter- 
ing on the next period, which w\\\ be devoted to 
the politician and statesman, it may be as well 
to relate here the story of Lincoln's defense of 
William Armstrong, although it occurred in 1858, 
after he had practically given up law practise for 
two years, and while he w^as engaged in the great 
campaign which resulted, two years later, in his 
election as President of the United States. 

William Armstrong, the son of Lincoln's old- 
time friend, Jack Armstrong (one of the " Clary's 
Grove boys," with whom he had wrestled at New 
Salem), had been arrested for a murder in May, 
1858, at Beardstown, Illinois. It appeared that 
Armstrong and a companion, after getting quite 
drunk, had quarreled with a man named Metzger, 
and that blows had passed between them. The 
day following the quarrel Metzger died, and two 
serious wounds upon his head indicated that he 
had been struck by some weapon in the hands o{ 
another man. Tlie evidence all tended to prove 
Armstrong guilty, though he stoutly affirmed his 
innocence, and stated that he had only struck him 
^rlith his fist, and not very hard either. It was 
<iiSO shown that the man Metzger, on his way 
home with his yoke of oxen, had been hit 



LINCOLN IN STORY 63 

cn the head by the <md of the yoke and knocked 
down. Still, one man swore that he saw Arm- 
strong strike him with a sling-shot. 

Lincoln, responding to Armstrong's mother's 
appeal, left his campaign speeches and went down 
to see what he could do to help the poor boy 
out of his difficulty, and if possible save him from 
the gallows. After he had talked with Armstrong, 
he was convinced of his innocence. 

When the trial came on, however, the testi- 
mony of one man was so positive that he had 
seen the blow struck, that Lincoln's case seemed 
hopeless. 

But Lincoln said, *' How could you have seen 
him strike the fatal blow when, according to all 
the evidence, the quarrel occurred between eleven 
and twelve o'clock at night, where there was no 
light of any kind near ? " 

The man quickly replied, ** I saw it by the 
light of the moon." 

This seemed decisive, and Lincoln appeared for 
the moment to be discouraged. There was so 
much at stake, however — not only young Arm- 
strong's ^'iife, but his widowed mother's happiness 
also — that Lincoln, after the court adjourned for 
the day, kept thinking and worrying over it. 
All at once he thought, " Suppose I can prove 
that the moon was not shining tliat night, and 



64 LINCOLN IN STORY 

tliat therefore this man's evidence Is false ! " So 
he hunted up the almanac, and before he went to 
bed that ni^ht he felt sure he would succeed in 
freeing his old friend's unfortunate boy. 

Next day when he opened his address for the 
defense he laid especial stress upon the testimony 
of this one man, and pointed out that his was 
the only direct evidence against the prisoner. 

After making it plain to the jury that without 
this man's moonlight story there was nothing 
upon which to convict his client, he said : " Now, 
gentlemen of the jury, I propose to prove to you 
that this evidence is absolutely false. I hold in 
my hand the proof that upon the night of the 
supposed murder there was no moon in the sky, 
but that it had set several hours before the 
time the fight occurred." 

He then handed the almanac, which he had 
brought with him, to the jury, and the sensation 
created by Lincoln's discovery was plainly shown 
in the faces of the men. 

The advantage he had thus gained he followed 
up with an eloquent appeal in favor of Armstrong. 
He reminded them that old Hannah Armstrong, 
the friend of his youth, had begged bim to defend 
her boy ; that he had no other interest in the 
trial than securing justice for the prisoner. He m^as 
not* working for a fee, but for the cause of right. 



ONCOLN IN STORY 65 

He told the jury of his once being a poor, 
fiiendless boy himself; that Armstrong's parents 
took him to their house, fed, and clothed him, 
and gave him a home. As he went on with iiis 
personal narrative his eyes filled with tears, Iiis 
voice choked, and his tall form quivered with the 
powerful emotions that swept over him as he 
thought of his own early struggles in life. 

The story, so pathetically told, moved the jury 
to tears also, aiul they forgot the supposed guilt 
of the prisoner in their admiration and sympathy 
for his advocate. 

On the morning of the trial, Lincoln had told 
the mother, " Your son will be free before sun- 
down," w^hich proved true, for the jury brouglit in 
a verdict of *' Not guilty." 

The defendants mother, Hannah Armstrong, 
speaking of it afterward, said : " Lincoln had said 
to me, * Hannah, your son wall be cleared before 
sundown.' I left the court-room, and they came 
and told me that my son was cleared and a free 
man. I went up to the court-house. , The jury 
shook hands with me ; so did the judge and Lin- 
coln. Tears streamed down Lincoln's cheeks. I 
asked him after the trial what his fee would be. 
* Why, Hannah.,' lie said, ' I sha'n't charge you a 
cent, and anything else I can do for you I will 
do it willingly without cliarge.' " 



(56 UNCOLN in STORf 

CHAPTER X. 

I>incoln -gain enters the field of politics — Chosen to 
an^\i er Douglas — Assists in organizing the Republican 
party — An audience of two — Challenges " the Little 
Giant" — The great speech on the Declaration of 
Independence — "The bulwark of liberty " speech- 
Nominated and elected President— Prophetic 
soliloquy — He leaves Springfield — The plot to 
assassinate him at Baltimore. 

The outrages in the States of Kansas and 
Missouri in 1855, following the passage of the 
Kansas and Nebraska bill, which originated with 
Stephen A. Douglas and admitted slavery into 
those States, aroused Lincoln from his long silence ; 
and when Douglas returned to Illinois as the lion 
of the day, and opened the campaign in Springfield 
with a speech in defense of his bill, which had 
been passed by Congress, Lincoln was chosen by 
his party to answer him. This he did with such 
great success that the Springfield Journal said : 

"The anti-Nebraska speech of Mr. Lincoln was. 
the profoundest, in our opinion, that he has made 
in his whole life. He felt upon his soul the truths 
burn v'hich he uttered, and all present felt that 
he was true to his ovvHI soul. His feelings once 
or twice swelled within, and came near stifling, 



LINCOLN In story 67 

utterancCc He quivered with emotion. The whole 
house was still as death. He was most successfull, 
and the house approved the glorious triumph of 
truth by loud and continued huzzas." 

At the instigation of his friends, he followed 
vSenator Douglas and made speeches either imme- 
diately after him in the same town, or by arrange- 
ment wn'th him upon the same platform. Douglas, 
however, soon tired of his agreement, and begged 
Lincoln's consent to give up the mutual debates. 

Lincoln was elected to the Legislature during 
this campaign, but resigned, intending to run for 
the United States Senate. This he did, but was 
defeated by Lyman Trumbull. 

While Lincoln was always against slavery, he 
did not sanction the methods of the abolitionists. 
He declared, *' Let there be peace. RevohUionize 
through the ballot-box, and restore the Governinent once 
more to the affectio)is and hearts of men by mahhig 
it express, as it was intended to doy the highest 
spirit of justice and liberty.'' 

Lincoln assists in. organizing the Republicaii Party 
in the State of Illinois 

Lincoln assisted in the organization a»id foun- 
dation of the Republican party in Illinois at a con- 
vention held in Bloomington, in May, 1856, mak- 
ing there an inspired speech and taking a bold 



6S LINCOLN IN STORY 

Stand against slavery. Upon his return to Spring- 
lield a public meetinq; was advertised to ratify the 
work of the convention ; but so unpopular were his 
views at that time tliat only one person came, aside 
from Mr. Lincoln's own partner. A Republican 
governor was elected, however, and Lincoln re- 
turned at the end of the campaign as the acknowl- 
edged leader of the party in the State — the only 
man who had been able to cope successfully with 
" ///^ Little Gi'a^ity as Douglas was called. 

Lincoln, 7toininaled for the United States Senate, 
challenges Douglas to Public Debate 

In 1858 the Democratic party nominated Douglas 
again for the United States Senate, and tlie Re- 
publican party in its convention resolved '*That 
Hon. Abraham Lincoln is our first and only 
choice for United States Senator." In his opening 
speech at Springfield, June 17, 1858, he spoke as 
follows : 

" A house divided against itself can not stand. 
/ believe this Government can not endure per ma- 
7ie7itly half free and half slave, I do not expect 
the Union to be dissolved, I do not expect the 
house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be 
divided. It will become all the one thing or the 
other." 

Lincoln challenged Douglas to a joint debat/:'. 



LINX'OLN IX STORY 69 

and seven meetings were arranged. These at- 
tracted the attention of the entire country, and 
i^ave Lincohi a national reputation. 

In the last joint discussion with Douglas, Lin- 
coln said : *' Slavery is the real issue. That is the 
issue that will continue in this country v;hen these 
poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall 
be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these 
two principles — right and wrong— throughout the 
world. 

''The one is the common right of humanity, 
and the other the divine right of kings. It is the 
same spirit that says ' You work and toil and 
earn bread, and I eat it.' No matter in what 
shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king, 
who seeks to bestride the people of his own 
nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from 
one race of men as an apology for enslaving 
another race, it is the same tyrannical principle." 

Lincobis Great Speech on the Declaration of 
Independence 

One of the greatest speeches Lincoln made 
during this remarkable campaign was at Beards- 
town, Illinois, on August 1 2th, the subject chosen 
being the Declaration of Independence. 

After alluding to the suppression of the sku' 
trade by the fathers of the Republic, he sai^ 



70 LINCOLN IN STORY 

" These by their representatives in Old Inde- 
pendence Hall said to the whole race of man . 
* We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
men are created free and equal ; that they are en- 
dowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness/ 

-"This was their majestic interpretation of the 
economy of the universe. This was their lofty 
and wise and noble understanding of the justice 
of the Creator to his creatures, to the whole great 
family of man. In their enlightened belief, noth- 
ing stamped with the divine Image and likeness 
was sent into this world to be trodden on and 
degraded and Imbruted by his fellows. 

'' Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the 
tendency of prosperity to beget tyrants, and so 
they established these great self-evident truths, 
that when, in the distant future, some man, some 
faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine 
that none but rich men, none but white men, or 
none but Anglo-Saxon white men, were entitled 
to life; liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, their 
posterity might look up again to the Declaration 
of Independence and take courage to renew the 
battle their forefathers began, so that truth and 
justice and mercy, and all humane Christian vir- 
tues, might not be extinguished from the land- 



LINCOLN IN STORY ^i 

So that no man would dare to limit and circum- 
scribe the cri'eat principles on which the temple 
of liberty was being built. 

" Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught 
doctrines conllicting with the great landmarks of 
the Declaration of Independence; if you have 
listened to suggestions which would take away 
from its grandeur and mutilate the fair symmetry 
of its proportions ; if 3'ou have been inclined to 
believe that all men are not created equal in 
those inalienable rights enumerated in our chart 
of liberty, le^ me entreat you to come back. Return 
to the foiiutain ivhose zuaters spring close by the 
blood of the Revolution. Think nothing of me ; 
take no thought for the political fate of any man 
w^homsoever, but come back to the truths that are 
in the Declaration of Independence. You may do 
anything with me you choose, if you will but heed 
these sacred principles. Von. may not only defeat, 
me for the Senate, but you may take me and pvi 
me to death. 

"I charge ) ou to drop every paltry and insig- 
nificant thought for any man's success. It is noth- 
ing ; I am nothing ; Judge Douglas is nothing". 
Out do not destroy that immortal emblem of hu- 
manity — the Declaration of Independ^ nee." 



}^^ LINCOLN IN STORY 

The Bukvavk of Liberty Speech 

One of the most powerful and, in places, elo* 
quent addresses delivered by Mr. Lincoln during 
that great contest between the "Little Giant" 
and the " Raii-spilitter," was delivered at Edwards- 
ville, September 13th, Among other things he 
said : 

" What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty 
and independence ? It is not our frowning battle- 
ments, our bristling seacoasts, our army and our 
navy. These are not our reliance against tyranny. 
Our reliance is the love of liberty which God has 
planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which 
prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all 
lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you 
Jiav: planted the seeds of despotism at yonr owft 
doors. luiniiliaj^ize yourselves with the chains of 
b'uda^'e and yju prepare your own limbs to zvear 
t/ie:n. Accustomed to trample on the rights of 
otiiers, you haie lost the genius of your ozun tilde- 
pendence, and become fit subjects of the first cun- 
ning tyrant Vv'ho rises among you." 

LAncolii s Prophetic Soliloquy 

'*! know there is a God " — " I may not see the end, but it 
will come, and T shall be vindicated." 

The days preceding the election were days q? 



LINCOLN IN STORY 7^ 

intense anxiety to Lincoln. As the campaign 
went on, the opposition assailed him from every 
possible standpoint. His enemies, unable to attack 
his integrity, scoffed at his humble birth, and 
called him an atheist, asserting that he was not a 
cb.urch -member and did not believe in a God. 

At this time, IMr. Newton Bateman, superia- 
t'jiulciU oi' public ir.sti'uction in Illinoise, states that 
Lincoln called him into his room, which was then 
in the State-house near his own office, and, after 
locking the door, he said : " Let us look over 
this book. I wish particularly to see how the 
ministers of Springfield are going to vote." 

He thereupon produced a book containing a 
careful canvass of the voters of Springfield in 
which each stated his intention. 

The leaves were turned over one by one, ant- 
tlien he sat silently for some minutes reofardinof a 
memorandum in pencil before him. At length he 
turned to Mr. Bateman with a face full of sadness, 
and said : " Here are twenty-three ministers of 
different denominations, and all of them are 
against me but three ; and here are a great many- 
prominent members of the churches, a large ma- 
jority of whom are against me. 

'' Mr. Bateman, I am not a Christian — God 
knows I would be one — but I have carefully read 
the Bible, and I do not so understand this book," 



74 LINCOLN IN STORV 

and he drew from his breast pocket a New Testa- 
ment. "These men all know," he continued, 
*' that I am for freedom in the Territories, free- 
dom everywhere as far as the Constitution an<^ 
laws permit, and that my opponents are iv. 
slavery. They know this, and yet, with this boot 
in their hands, in the light of which human bond 
age can not live a moment, they are going to 
vote aofainst me. 

" I do not understand it all." 

Here Lincoln paused for several minutes, his 
features surcharged with emotion. Then he walked 
up and down the room in an effort to retain or 
regain his self-possession. Stopping at last and 
speaking as though to himself, his voice still 
trembling with the deep emotion which possessed 
him while his cheel-s were wet with tears, he 
said : 

'' I know there is a God and that he hates in- 
justice and slavery. I see the storm coming and 
I know his hand is in it. If he has a place and 
work for me, and I think he has, I believe I am 
ready. .. 

" I am nothing, but truth is everythmg. I 
know I am right because I know that liberty is 
right. Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I 
have told them that ' a house divided against itself 
can not stand,' and Christ and reason say thQ 



LINCOLN IN STORY 75 

same, and they will find It so. 

*' Douglas ' don't care whether slavery Is voted 
lip or dowm,' luit God cares, and humanity cares, 
and I care, and w^ith God's help I shall not fail. 
/ may not see the end, but it wilt come, and 1 
shall be vijidicated, and these men will find they 
did not read their Bibles right." 

This was spoken as though to himself with a 
sad earnestness of manner impossible to describe. 
After a pause he resumed, addressing Mr. Bate- 
man : 

" Doesn't it appear strange that men can ignore 
the moral aspects of this contest ? A revelation 
could not make it plainer to me that slavery or 
this Government must be destroyed. The future 
w^ould be something awful as I look at it but for 
this rock on which I stand. 

" It seems as if God had borne with this thine 
[slavery] until the very teachers of religion have 
come to defend it from the Bible, and to claim 
for it Divine Character and sanction, and -nozo ike 
cup of iniquity is full and the vials of lurath will 
be poured out,'' 

Nominated and Elected President 

In the presidential campaign of '59, which 
resulted in Lincoln's election, Lincoln was invited 
to speak in New York and other Eastern cities. 



76 LINCOLN IN STORY 

His speech in Cooper Union, New York, which 
had been prepared with much care and labor, 
pleased his partisan friends, and made a favorable 
impression on the general public, though the 
opposition ridiculed him, the New York Herald 
being especially severe. 

Upon returning to his home in Springfield, 
Illinois, Lincoln heard himself frequently mentioned 
as a candidate for the presidency. To one friend 
he wrote, ''I do not think I am fit to be 
President." But his friends in Illinois and the 
West would have it otherwise, and at the conven- 
tion held in Chicago, on the third ballot, Lincoln 
was nominated, and on November 6, 1859, he 
was elected President of the United States, by a 
vote of 1,857,610, Douglas receiving but 1,291,574, 
Breckinridge, 850,022, and Bell 646,124. 

Preparing to leave Springfield — A Visit to his 

Aged Stepmother 

After the election, Lincoln remained quietly in 
Springfield at his modest home. Before leaving 
for Washington, to assume the duties of the 
President, he paid a visit to his aged stepmother 
in P'armington, Coles County, and also to the 
grave of his father, leaving orders to have a 
suitable tombstone provided for it. His affec- 
tionate parting with the good old woman who 



LINCOLN IN STORY 77 

had loved him so much In his boyhood days, and 
for whom he had always maintained a real filial 
devotion, was very affecting. With tears stream- 
ing down her wrinkled face, she gave him 3 
mother's benediction, expressing the fear that his 
life might be taken by his enemies. The scene 
was most impressive and left a deep feeling ol 
sorrow on the soul of Lincoln as he returned to 
Springfield to make ready for his departure to 
Washington. He sold his household goods and 
rented his house. He said to his law partner, 
Mr. Herndon, as he was leaving the office for 
the last time, speaking of the sign-board which 
swung on the rusty hinges at the foot of the 
stairway: "Let it hang there undisturbed. Give 
our clients to understand that the election of a 
President makes no change in the firm of Lincoln 
& Herndon. If I live I'm coming back some 
time, and then we'll go right on practising law^ as 
if nothing had happened." He also said to his 
partner, who walked with him to his home, that 
"the sorrow of parting from his old associations 
was deeper than most persons wc.uld imagine, but 
it was more especially marked because of the 
feeling which had fixed itself in his mind that 
he would never return alive." 



7^ LINCOLN IN STORY 

Departure from Springfield and Fai'eiuell to his 

Friends 

On the morning of February ii, 1861, the 
President and his party took the train for Wash- 
ington, the intention being to stop over at Spring- 
field, Ohio, Pittsburg, Buffalo, Alban}^ New York, 
and Philadelphia. At all of these places he made 
short patriotic speeches which made an excellent 
impression throughout the country. At the 
railway station, before the train started, a large 
crowd of friends collected, though it was a stoimy 
morning. Responding to their calls, Lincoln 
stepped out upon the rear platform of the last 
car, and, pausing for a moment to suppress the 
evidences of his emotion, he made the following- 
brief address : • 

" Friends : No one who has never been placed 
in a like position can understand my feelings ai 
this hour, nor the oppressive sadness I feel at 
this parting. For more than a quarter of a 
century I have lived among you, and during all 
that time I have received nothing but kindness at 
your hands. 

" Here I have lived from my youth until now 
I am an old man. Here the most sacred ties of 
earth were assumed. Here all my children were 
born. To you, dear friends, I owe all that I 



LINCOLN IN STORY 79 

have, all that I am. All the strange checkered 
past seems to crowd now upon my mind. So I 
leave you. I go to assume a task more difficult 
than that which devolved upon Washington. 
Unless the great God who assisted him shall be 
with and aid me, I must fail ; but if the same 
omniscient mind and Almighty arm that directed 
and protected him shall guide and support me, 
I shall not fail — I shall succeed. Let us pray that 
the God of our fathers may not forsake us now. 
To him I commend you all. Permit me to ask 
that with equal sincerity and faith you will invoke 
his wisdom and guidance for me." 

The Plot to Assassinate Lincobi 

Immediately after the election of Lincoln, threats 
were frequently made by the people of the 
Southern States that he should not be permitted 
to take his office. These soon changed to the 
declaration that he should not live to be inaueu- 
rated. But the people of the North who had 
frequently been disappointed in the defeat of their 
own candidates for the presidency, and had always 
submitted to the law, supposed that these threats 
were the result of the great disappointment and 
chagrin of those office-seekers who thought Lin- 
coln, as the President, meant their own political 
ruin; and who, i;i the bitterness of their defeat 



80 LINCOLN IN STORY 

gave vent to their feelings in a thoughtless and 
hot-tempered manner. 

As the time for Lincoln's departure for Wash- 
ington approached, these threats had assumed a 
more definite form ; and the press announced that 
there was a rumor in Washington that a plot was 
on foot to kill him before he should reach the 
Capital. 

Mr. Norman B. Judd and some other personal 
friends of Lincoln in Chicago, as a result of these 
reports, engaged Allan G. Pinkerton, the detective, 
to ferret out the truth of tiie rumors ; and men 
had already been sent to various places, notably 
Washington and Baltimore, to discover the plot, 
and, if possible, prevent its consummation. 

On February 20th, while Mr. Lincoln and his 
party were in New York city passing on their 
way to W^ashington, a female detective, acting 
under Pinkerton's orders, called on Mr. Judd at 
the Astor House, and presented him with such ari 
array of evidence that he became convinced of 
the seriousness of the scheme. ' 

The next day, after they had arrived in Phila- 
delphia, and at Mr. Judd's suggestion, Mr. Pinker- 
ton himself met Lincoln and explained to him the 
situation. But the president could not believe it 
possible that his life was really in danger, and, in 
v\oire of Mr. Pinkerton's warning, did not then 



LINCOLN IN STORY 8 1 

alter his intention to pass through Baltimore at 
the time already announced. 

Meanwhile the friends in Washington had not 
been idle, and, entirely independent of, and un- 
known to Pinkerton, had discovered the following 
plot in detail : -_ 

A number of Baltimore " toughs " and gam- 
blers, who sympathized with the secessionists, had 
secretly formed a conspiracy to kill Mr. Lincoln. 
They had already hired and partially paid some 
Italian murderers to stab him to death at Balti- 
more, either in the car in which he should be, or 
in the carriao^e in which he mi^rht be ridincr from 
one station to the other ; this plan was practicable 
for the reason that the passenger cars could be 
freely approached from both sides as they re- 
mained standing on the tracks, and it was calcu- 
lated that an immense crowd would be present 
surrounding the train. In this throng the hired 
assassins were to mingle, and with a number of ac- 
complices were to enter the car and stab the Presi- 
dent one after the other as quickly as possible. 

They planned to escape into the throng, and, 
in the confusion, their numerous accomplices were 
to assist them. A large ocean sailing-vessel lay 
in waiting at a convenient point near by, on . 
which they were to get away from the country. 
In case the President should ride across the city, 



^2 LINCOLN IN STORY 

liis carriage was to be surrounded by a crowd of 
his enemies, the horses stopped, and the horrible 
crime committed there. 

The son of William H. Seward (afterward 
Secretary of State under Lincoln) brought the 
above details of the plot to Philadelphia and re- 
lated his story to Mr. Lincoln and his friends on 
the evening of the same day (February 21st) that 
Mr. Pinkerton had shown him the evidence he 
had, with his male and female detectives, collected* 

After Lincoln had listened to Mr. Seward's 
story, he asked if he had had any relation to 
or correspondence with Mr. Pinkerton. Being 
assured to the contrary, he became convinced of 
the conspiracy, and finally decided to place him- 
self in the hands of his friends and comply with 
any arrangements they might make which would 
not interfere with his public engagements to speak 
at Independence Hall the next morning. (Wash- 
ington's Birthday), and at Harrisburg in the after- 
noon. 

Arrangements were accordingly at once made 
to foil the conspirators, absolute secrecy being 
essential, as the city government of Baltimore 
was in the hands of Lincoln's enemies ; and while 
not openly daring to take part in such a horrible 
crime, the police would probably secretly aid in 
its accomplishment. : 



Lincoln in story 8^ 

it was therefore publicly announced that Mj'. 
Lincoln's route to Washinoton would brine: him 
to Baltimore in the forenoon of February 23d, 
after the speech at Harrisburg, while it was 
secretly arranged that he should leave the latter 
place early in the evening, passing through Balti- 
more after midnight and arriving at the Capital 
early on the morning of the 23d. 

To carry out this plan the cooperation of the 
president of the railway company was enlisted. 
That gentleman ordered a special car with an 
engine to be in waiting at Harrisburg at 6 p. m. 
for Lincoln's use. He also held the regular 1 1 
p. M. train at Philadelphia for Washington, order- 
ing the conductor to wait for an " important 
packaged 

After his speech before the Legislature at Har- 
risburg and while Mr. Lincoln was yet at dinner 
at the hotel, a carnage was driven up to a side 
entrance. 

Mr. Judd called him from the table, and Mr. 
Lincoln, changing his clothes, put on a Scotch 
cap, and, wath a shawl upon his arm, quietly and 
without informing the other members of his party, 
entered the waiting vehicle with Colonel Lamon, 
of Springfield, III., as his only companion^ 

The *' special " train (unlighted. except the en- 
gine headlight) was found waiting a little distance 



84 LINCOLN IN STORY 

from the station, and they succeeded in entering 
it. without attracting attention. They arrived at 
Philadelphia without incident a Httle after eleven 
o'clock, where they found the train for Washing- 
ton waitinof. 

As soon as Lincoln and his friend boarded the 
train, where a section in a sleeping car was ready 
for them, the " important package " for Washing- 
ton was handed to the conductor, and the train 
started on its journey, the conductor himself being 
unaware of the fact that he was conveying the 
" man of destiny " to the Capital. Immediately 
retiring to his berth, Lincoln was enjoying a good 
night's rest and passing through the enemy's coun- 
try at the very hour the assassins in Baltimore 
were completing the details for his murder. 

Lincoln and his companion arrived safeiy, and 
without disturbance, in Washington at six o'clock 
in the morning, where Mr. Seward and Elihu 
Washburne met them at the station with feelings 
of relief and gratitude, and conducted them at 
once to Willard's Hotel, where Mr. Lincoln was 
to remain until his inauguration. 

His arrival at the Capital surprised and dis- 
comfited the conspirators, but pleased and grati- 
fied the people of the North, who did not, until 
years after, realize the imminent clanger to the 
Hfe of their chosen President. 



LINCOLN IN STORY 8$ 

Colonel Lamon, who accompanied Lincoln and 
was most urgent in his secretly passing through 
Baltimore, afterward discredited the entire story, 
and, in his work, states that Lincoln always deeply 
regretted yielding to his overzealous friends. He 
ridicules the idea and blames himself for the part 
he took in the " President's flight," 



CHAPTER XL 



Events leading up to the great civil war — Treason in the 
Cabinet of President Buchanan — The Southern 
Confederacy formed — War begun. 

In order that we may understand the great 
and difficult task which Lincoln had before him, 
it is necessary to briefly state the facts which led 
up to the great rebellion. 

After Lincoln's election in November, many of 
the Southern people concluded they would not be 
ruled by a " black abolitionist," as they called 
him. In December the State of South Carolina 
withdrew from the Union (seceded). 

In February, 1861, six seceding Southiern States 
held a convention at Montgomery, Ala., forty-twc 



86 LINXOLN IN STORY 

persons only being present. These adopted a 
constitution, and elected Jefferson Davis and 
Alexander Stephens president and vicepresident, 
thus setting up a government in opposition to 
the United States, especially for the purpose of 
protecting slavery. 

Meantime the President in office, Mr. Buchanan, 
u'as surrounded by traitors, who, while taking pay 
for serving and defending the Union, were using 
their power and positions to destroy it. 

Thus the Secretary of War, Mr. Floyed, sent 
to the States in rebellion all the guns and am- 
munition from the Northern States which could 
be transported. 

The United States Treasury of New Orleans 
was taken possession of by the State of Louisiana, 
and five hundred thousand dollars robbed from 
the Government ; Major Anderson, commanding 
a small body of United States troops at Charles- 
ton, S. C, was shut up in Fort Sumter, and a 
vessel sent secretly by the Government of Presi- 
dent Buchanan to carry them provisions, etc., was 
fired on by the rebels, shot in several places, and, 
being unarmed, was compelled to return to New 
York. 

Traitors were everywhere, and open threats 
were made against the life of Lincoln — that he 
should be killed, and never be allowed to become 



LINCOLN IN STORY ^l 

President of the United States. Thus actual war 
had been declared by these six Southern States 
against the Government some months befose Mr. 
Lincohi liad become President, and the United 
States Government had been robbed of ahiiost 
every means of defenciing itself. 

Indeed, in the Southern States, troops were 
being armed with the guns taken from the Gov- 
ernment before Lincoln had become President. 
The excitement throughout the country was very 
great. 

People did not at first understand that the 
seceding of these States meant the destruction of 
the Union and Republican form of government ; 
and many said : '' Oh, let them go ! If they don't 
want to stay in the Union, v/e don't want to 
make them stay." 

The Southern people also did not realize what 
the fev/ (forty- two) leaders were doing for them. 
They did not think the Northern people would 
fight for the Government ; and if Lincoln insisted 
on forcing them into the Union, they thought 
that the}', with their troops, would capture Washing- 
ton and set up their own government. 

The rebels, or Confederates, were waiting to 
see it Lincoln should really become President, 
and then what he would do. The Government 
pftices in Washington were filled with men in 



B^ LINCOLN IN STORY 

sympathy with the South, and treason wat every* 
where present. 

Ex'Senaior Dazves describes Lincoln s Arrival in 

Washington 

Ex- Senator Dawes, of Massachusetts, in telling 
some " personal recollections of Abraham Lincoln" 
before the Men's League at Pittsfield, January 
19, 1901, said : 

" I remember the first time that I saw Mr. 
Lincoln on that morning when he came to Wash- 
ington ten days before he was to take the oath 
of office as President of the United States. He 
came at a time and in a manner most unfortunate 
for himself and his friends. It had an extraordi- 
nary effect on all classes of people. For three 
months previously there had been great apprehen- 
sion in Congress over the safety of the President- 
elect, as it was believed that a conspiracy existed 
to assassinate him and thereby prevent his inau- 
guration." 

Speaking of Lincoln's personal appearance, he 
continued : " I never saw a man so unkempt, so 
ill-looking ; his hair was disheveled, his clothes 
were the ones that he had worn on the sleeper 
Vom Springfield. He was long and angular. It 
seemed as though his body was made up of com- 
ponent parts of different bodies — as though his 



LINCOLN IX STORY 89 

head was not in the right place. Rough and un- 
couth, he was a typical backwoodsman. But 
there was something incomprehensible in his face, 
something unfiithomable. 

" About Washington there were thousands of 
the poor fellows in camps who had enlisted for the 
service of their country. Every Saturday after- 
noon the Congressmen used to visit those who had 
come from their home districts, and I never went 
among those soldiers but what I saw Mr. Lincoln 
there. No mother ever went to Washington to 
intercede for her son that did not go away feeling 
that everything possible had been done for him. 
He was a great lover of justice ; he never allowed 
a man to suffer who w^as not responsible for a 
crime. 

'' I saw him when he came to Washington, and 

I was there when he Ml. Just forty days before 
his death I took my little boy to see him. The 
President took him up in his arms and said : ' My 
boy, never try to be President of the United 
States. If you do, you never will be.' 

" You talk about your self-made men. He 
wasn't self-made. It was in him. He was created 
to serve his country in that momentous hour. I 
have never doubted that it was a miracle." 



90 LINCOLN IN STORY 

Loyalty of General Scott — The CoJtfederates fire on 
Fort Smnter — Call for Seventy-five. Jhoiisand 
Volunteers— Sixth Massachusetts Regiment 
mobbed in Baltimore — Pennsylvaniay New 
York, and Massachusetts Regiments defend the 
Capitol 

General Winfield Scott had remained loyal, 
and promised Mr. Lincoln the protection of all 
the United States troops which he had at his com- 
mand, and so, in spite of threats q{ his life, and 
treason all about him, he was able to take the 
oath of his office in peace on March 4, 1861. 

On April 14th Fort Sumter, under Major 
Anderson's command, was captured by the Con- 
federates, the Stars and Stripes were hauled down, 
and, at this insult to the nation, a thrill of indig- 
nation passed over the people of the North, arous- 
ing them to their patriotic duty. A great cry 
arose from all parties to defend the flag and the 
Union, 

President Lincoln, the next day, issued a proc- 
lamation calling for seventy-five thousand volun- 
teer troops to defend Washington and the Govern- 
ment property. 

A small regiment from Pennsylvania reached 
Washington a day later ; but the Sixth Massa- 
chusetts Regiment, when passing through Balti- 



LINCOLN IN STORY 9I 

more two days afterward, was mobbed, and a large 
number killed and wounded. 

The sympathizers with the South in Baltimore 
now burned tlie railway bridges leading to Wash- 
ington, and tore up the tracks so as to prevent 
more troops from reaching the Capitol. They also 
destroyed the telegraph, so that for a week, from 
April 19th, the Capitol was cut off from communi- 
cation with the North. But, in spite of these 
efforts of the enemy, the Seventh Regiment from 
New York, and the Eighth Regiment from Bos- 
ton, Mass., reached Washington in time to prevent 
its capture ; and the loyal people there received 
them with a great demonstration of enthusiasm. 

The Uprising of the JVoj^th— Douglas s Loyally — His 

Famous Speech 

The people of the North were now thoroughly 
aroused, and the tramp of armed men was heard 
in every part of the country from the Atlantic 
coast to the Mississippi River. 

Regiment after regiment marched off with 
flags flying, bands playing, and sometimes the 
men sinofincr the famous war-song^, *' Glorv, Halle- 
lujah." The streets of every Northern city w^ere 
filled with soldiers, who came together with one 
common impulse — to save the Union. Special 
railway-trains of passenger and freight-cars were 



92 LINCOLN IN STORY 

rushed to Washington and other points South. 
Steamboats on the Mississippi River were crowded 
with volunteers, who w^ere carried to Cairo, 111., 
where they gathered to defend that part of the 
country. In fact, the entire North, West, and East 
Avas ablaze with patriotic enthusiasm and prepar- 
ations for war ; the shrill notes of the fife, and beat 
of the drum, being heard from early morning till 
late at nicrht. 

This spontaneous uprising of the masses of the 
people in defense of the flag and the Union, was 
a great surprise and disappointment to the South- 
ern conspirators and their followers ; and when 
Stephen A. Douglas, who had been the Demo- 
cratic candidate opposed to Lincoln, came out in 
a speech supporting him and his Administration, 
thousands of wavering ones in the North were 
won over to the Union cause. Douglas showed 
his loyalty to the Union in a most noble and 
unselfish manner. He was present at Lincoln's 
inauguration and showed his personal friendship 
by holding his hat for him when he made his 
speech. He immediately called on Lincoln and 
offered to do anything he could assist. Lincoln 
told him he thought the best thing could do 
would be to go to Illinois and hold his friends 
and followers to the cause of the Union. 

Douglas accordingly w^ent West, and on April 



LINCOLN IN STORY 93 

.:5th made a great speech to the members of the 
lliiivois State Legislature. In the tumult and great 
excitement of the time, this speech was like a 
trumpet call to arms. 

He stood in the same place where Lincoln had 
stood in opposing him. The veins of his neck and 
forehead were swollen with passion, and the per- 
spiration ran down his face in streams. His voice 
was frequently broken with emotion, and the 
amazino- force that he threw into the words, 

" When hostile armies are marching binder nezv 
and odious banners against the Governnient of our 
co^nifry, the shortest way to peace is the most stu- 
pendous and ttiianimous pi^eparation for zuary' 
seemed to shake the whole building. "That speech 
hushed the breath of treason in everv corner of 
the State," says Mr. Herndon, Lincoln's partner, 
who was present at tlie time. Douglas died 
shortly afterward in Chicago, where a fine monu- 
ment was erected to his memor}'. 

Lincoln as President — He opposed General Scott's 
Plan of the Battle of Bull Run — His Sad Face 

During these days of preparation everything 
dcpeiided upon President Lincoln. He was at 
work early and late, and bore the awful burden 
of the great duties of his office with much pa- 
tience. 



94 LINCOLN LN STORY 

He was always to be seen by the people at 
his office, and denied nobody who called. The 
rich and poor were treated alike by him ; and his 
honesty, no less than his simplicity of manner, won 
tlie sympathy and confidence of the people. In 
a few weeks an army of thirty thousand men w-as 
oathered, and under General McDowell's com- 
mand, on July 21st, the battle of Bull Run in 
Virginia was fought, the Union troops being 
defeated, and in panic and disorder rushing back 
to Washington. The battle had been planned by 
General Scott contrary to Lincoln's judgment, 
who had pointed out the enemy's strong point, 
and advised a different plan of attack. The terrible 
slaughter of men, and horrible suffering of the 
wounded, deeply affected the President, and from 
this time on, during the awful bloody battles of 
the great civil war, his sadness and mental suf- 
fering showed itself in his homely but expressive 
face. 

The artist who painted the picture "Signing the 
Emancipation Proclamation," said of the President's 
face : "In repose it was the saddest face I ever 
knew. There were days when I could scarcely 
look on it without crying." 

The day after the terrible defeat at Bull Run 
the President issued a proclamation calling for five 
hundred thousand troops. 



I.INCOLX IN STORY 95 

The organization and drilling of this vast body 
of men took many weeks and months. And few 
battles of importance occurred until the next 
year, 1862, though General U. S. Grant, with a 
small army, in September, i8lt, entered the State 
of Kentucky at Paducah. 

As it is not the purpose of this book to give 
a history of the great civil war, and yet, as it is 
necessary to know something of that dreadful 
struiXQrle in order to understand Lincoln's orreat 
services to his country in carrying it forward to a 
successful issue and restoring the Union, it has 
been thought best to collect the principr.l facts 
and place them before the reader in the order of 
their occurrence. 



CEAPTER XII. 

The sleeping sentinel and the President 

In September, 1861, during the earh' part of 
the war, William Scott, a young Green Mountain 
(Vermont) boy, accustomed to going to bed early 
all his lile, to sleep long and soundly, and entirely 
unused to military duties, was a member of Com- 



96 LINCOLN IN STORY 

pany K in the Third Vermont Regiment. The 
regiment was stationed at Chain Bridge, only a 
few miles from Washington ; a most important 
position, upon which the safety of the Capital 
depended. ^;i 

One day Scott volunteered to do picket duty 
for a sick comrade, and thus passed the whole 
night marching forward and backward on guard. 
The next day he was himself detailed on picket 
duty and undertook the performance of it. 

It beino^ the second nio-ht he had stood o^uard, 
]v:- '" ' '• necessa^ ' reat efio \ to 

' truggicd 
...:.i c;.ane over 
iixo L.reU Oouy coulJ no longer keep 
on, and he was found in the morning sound asleep 
at his post. For this offense he was tried by the 
military court, found guilty, arid sentenced to be 
shot within twenty-four hours. ^ 

His fellow-soldiers all liked him and knew that 
he did not mean to neglect his duty. They felt 
that it w^as entirely owing to his kindness, in tak- 
ing his sick comrade's place the night before, that 
liad brought upon him that fatal sleepiness to 
which he had finally surrendered. 

So his comrades called a meeting, raised a sum 
of money, and sent a committee of three to Wash- 
ington to ask the assistance and advice of Mr. L. 



LINCOLN IN STORV 97 

E. Chittenden, United States Rei^istrar of the 
Treasuf)', he being a Vermont man, and knowing 
the regiment well. ^,^ 

This committee, including the captain of tlie 
company to which Scott beJonged, marched into 
Washington early in the morning and called upon 
Mr. Chittenden in the Treasur\' Buildino-. 

The captain, plainly showing his excitement, 
said : " Mr. Chittenden, I am the man wdio is to 
blame for this whole affair. First of all, Scott's 
mother opposed his enlistment because of his in- 
experience and youth, and I promised to look 
after him as though he were my own boy. In 
this you see I failed. I must have been asleep 
or stupid myself that I paid no attention to the 
boy's statement that he was so sleepy already from 
standing guard one night for his sick comrade, 
that he had fallen asleep during the day ; why, 
Scott himself said he was afraid he could not 
keep awake the second night on picket duty," 
continued the distracted captain. 

*' Instead of sending another or going myself 
in Scott's place, as I ought to have done. I sent 
that poor sleepy boy to his death. I am the 
guilty one, Mr. Chittendcii. If aiiy one should be 
shot. I am the fellow^" 

Mr. Chittenden said: "What a pity! Indeed, 
what a pity! The army officers complaii: oi poor 



98 LINCOLN IN STORY 

discipline and many desertions, and say they must 
make an example of this poor boy. " 

*'But there must be some way to save him," 
returned the captain with tears in his eyes. "He 
is as good a boy as there is in the army, and he 
ain't to blame. You will help us, won't you ? " 

To this sentiment all assented, and said they 
had raised among them a sum of money, intend- 
ing to hire a kwyer and have another trial ; 
but Mr. Chittenden, at once seeing that nothing 
could be done except an appeal to the President, 
said : 

** Put up your money, gentlemen. I can not 
take mioney for helping a Vermont soldier. I 
know the facts in this case of v/hich you know 
nothing, I fear nothing can be done ; certainly, 
lawyers and courts can do nothing." 

Finally, after a moment's thought, he added : 
'' Come, there is onlv one man on earth who can 
save your comrade. Fortunately he is the best 
man in the country. We will go to President 
Lincoln." 

Quickly leading the party over to the White 
House, acting entirely upon the impulse of the 
moment, Mr. Chittenden hurried to the little pri- 
vate office where the President was busy writing. 
Looking up, Lincoln good-naturedly exclaimed : 
*' What is this? An expedition to kidnap some- 



LINCOLN LNT STORY 99 

body, or to get another brigadier-general ap- 
pointed, or for your furiough to go home and 
vote ? I can not do it, gentlenien. Brigadiers are 
thicker than drum- majors, and I couldn't get a 
furlough for myself if I asked it of the War De- 
partment." 

'' Mr. President, these men want nothing for 
themselves," spoke up Mr. Chittenden. '' They 
are Green Mountain boys of the Third Vermont. 
They wi]l fight as long as you need soldiers ; 
they don't want promotion until they earn it, but 
they do want something that you alone can give 
them — the life of a comrade." 

" What has he clone ? " asked the President. 
" You Vermonters are not a bad lot, generally. 
Has he cnmmitted murder,, or mutiny, or what 
other crime ? " 

"Tell him," Mr. Chittenden said to the captain. 

" I can not ! I can not ! I should stammer 
like a fool ! You can do it better," said the 
captain. 

" Captain, Scott's life depends upon you," replied 
Chittenden, and pushing liim forward toward the 
President, said : " You must tell the President 
the story. I only know it from hearsay." 

Thus, standing before the Pr<isident, the cap- 
tain, ])lushing with embarrassment, commenced to 
stammer out his story. 



\ 



lOO LINCOLN IN STORY 

The President was immediately interested ; pretty 
soon the captain's tongue began to speak more 
clearly and as he gained self-control his words 
flowed freely ; he then gave the President a very 
graphic account of the sentinel's misfortune, 
ending by saying : ^ 

"He is as brave a boy as there is in the army, 
sir. Scott is no coward. Our mountains breed no 
cowards. They are the homes of thirty thousand 
men who voted for Abraham Lincoln. They will 
not be able to see that the best thing to be done 
n Scott will be to shoot him like a 
, r.i.xi Al^c a dv'or. Oh! Mr. Lincoln^ 

As the captain proceeded the President's face 
nad become very earnest, and an intensely sad 
look pervaded it ; as he concluded there was some- 
thing like tears in his eyes, but as the captain fin- 
ished he exclaimed, " No, I can't ! " 

Then, quick as a flash, his countenance changed, 
and smiling, he broke out into a hearty laugh' 
and turning to Mr. Chittenden, said : " Do your 
Green Mountain boys fight as well as they talk .'^ " 

Then, his manner softening, he went on : " But 
what can I do ? What do you expect me to do ? 
As you know, I have not much influence with 
the Department." 

Mr. Chittenden answered : " I have thought the 



LINCOLN IN STORY 10 1 

matter out. I (eel a deep interest in saving the 
boy's life, for I think I knew his father. Now, 
it seems to me that if you would sign an order 
suspending Scott's execution until his friends can 

have his case examined, I might carry it to the 
War Department, and so insure the delivery of 
the order to General Smith to-day, through the 
regular channels of the W^ar Office." 

" No," replied Lincoln, " I do not diink that 
course would be safe. You do not know these 
officers of the regular army. They are a law unto 
themselves. They sincerely think that it is good 
policy occasionally to shoot a soldier." 

'' I can see it wdiere a soldier commits a crime 
or deserts the army, but I can not see it in such 
a case as Scott's." 

" They say that I am always interfering with 
the discipline of the army, and being cruel to the 
soldiers." 

*' Well, I can't help it. I do not think an 
honest, brave soldier, conscious of no crime but 
sleeping when he was weary, ought to be hanged 
or shot; the country has better uses for him." 

*' Captain," continued the President, " your boy 

shall not be shot ; that is, not to-morrow, or until 

I know more about lus case." 

Then turning to Mr. Chittenden he went on : 

" I will have to attend to this matter myselt. I 



102 LINCOLN IN STORY 

have for some time intended going up to the camp 
at Chain Bridge. I will do so to-day, and I shall 
then know that there will be no mistake in sus- 
pending the execution of this poor boy." 

" But, Mr. President, you are thus undertaking 
a burden we did not intend to impose on you," 
said Mr. Chittenden. 

" Never mind," Lincoln answered, '' Scott's life 
is as valuable to him as that of any person in 
the land. You remember the remark of the 
Scotchman about the head of a nobleman who 
was beheaded .'^ He said: 'It was a small matter 
of a head, but it was valuable to him, poor fellow, 
for it was the only one he had." 

Seeing that remonstrance was in vain, Mr. Chit- 
tenden, the captain, and his comrades, after ex- 
pressing their gratitude, departed, the latter re- 
turning to the camp. 

Lincohis Visit to the Condemned Soldier in 
his Guard-House 

The President, true to his promise, in the after- 
noon left the White House, drove out to the 
Chain Bridge camp, and immediately asked to 
be taken to the guard-house where Scott was 
confined. The boy at once knew the President 
by a medal, with Lincoln's homely face engraved 
upon it, which he had long worn suspended 



LINCOLN IN STORY 103 

around his neck, and be felt so frightened when 
Lincoln came to him, he could hardly speak. But 
the President spoke so kindly and gently to him 
that he soon forgot his fear. 

The President asked him about his people at 
home, about the farm, where he went to school, 
who his playmates were, and then he asked about 
his mother and how she looked, and the boy 
gladly took her photograph form his breast-pocket 
and showed it to him. 

The President said : " How thankful you ought 
to be that your mother still lives, and if I were in 
your place I should try to make her a proud 
mother and never cause her a sorrow or a tear." 
Many more kind words he said, but as yet he had 
not mentioned the dreadful next morninof when 
the boy was to be shot. 

Scott thought he was so tender-hearted he did 
not like to speak of it, and still he thought, " Why 
should he speak about not causing a sorrow or 
tear to my mother when he knows I am to die 
in the morning ? " With this thought Scott con- 
cluded to " brace up " and tell the President he 
did not feel guilty of any crime, and he would 
ask him as a special favor if he couldn't fix it up 
so that the firing party who were to shoot him 
might be drawn from another regiment, because 
it was so hard to die from the hands of his own 



104 



LINCOLN IN STORY 



ooinradcs. 

His resolution to "speak up," however, was 
cut sliort by the President, who now stood up 
and said : -^ 

" My boy, stand up and look me in the face." 
As Scott stood up, the President cantinued : '' My 
boy, you are not going to be shot to-morrow. I 
believe \ ou when you tell me you could not keep 
awake. I am going to trust you and send you 
back to your regiment." 

At this Scott's eyes filled with tears, his lips 
quivered, and his throat was filled with a great 
lump. He could hardly control his emotion or 
find power to speak his surprise and gratitude. 

He had expected to die the next morning, and 
had become used to thinking of it that way. To 
have it all changed in a minute ! It was too much* 
The President went on : 

"But i lia\e been put to a great deal of trouble 
on your account. I have come up here from 
Washington, where I have many duties to attend 
to, and what I want to know is, how are you 
going to pay my bill?" 

The soldier finally choked down his sobs and 
said : 

" I am grateful, Mr. Lincoln, I hope I am as 
grateful as ever a man can be to you for saving 
my life. But it is so sudden and unexpected like, 



LINCOLN IN STORY I05 

1 didn't lay out for it at all. But there must be 
some way to pay you and I will find it after a 
little." 

A happy thought seemed to occur to him, and 
he continued; 

" There is the bounty in the savings-bank, and 
I guess we could borrow some money on the 
farm by mortgaging it; hen there will be my 
pay as a soldier, and I guess if you will wait till 
pay-day the boys in the regiment will help, and 
so we can make it up, if it isn't more than five 
or six hundred dollars." 

Lincoln, sadly smiling, replied : " But it's a great 
deal more than that." 

"Then I don't just see how, but I'm sure I 
can find some way to pay it if I live," said 
Scott. 

The Sentinels Solemn Oath 

The President, placing his hands on the boy's 
shoulders and looking him in the eye, as though 
he was sorry, said very earnestly : *' My boy, my 
bill is a large one. Your friends can not pay it, 
nor your bounty, nor the farm, nor all your com- 
rades! There is only one man in the world who 
can pay your bill, and his name is William Scott, 

*' If from this day William Scott does his duty. 
so that if I were there when he came to die, he 



|06 LINCOLN IN STORY 

could look me in the face, as he does now, and 
say, ' I have kept my promise and have done my 
duty as a sokher,' then my debt will be paid. Will 
you make mc that promise and try to keep it ? " 

As the President spoke a great sense of the 
sacredness of his duly to his country came over 
the boy. 

He was thrilled as never before with a patri- 
otic desire to give his life in the cause of freedom 
and for the love of this great and good man ; and, 
as he answered, standing erect and raising his 
right hand toward heaven, something- like a glorious 
light seemed for a moment to shine upon him as 
he solemnly said ; '' I make the jn'omise, and with 
God's help will keep it." 

Then the boy broke down, and, grasping Lin- 
coln's hand, sobbed convulsively. When he recov- 
ered, the President was gone, and in his hands 
the soldier held an order for his immediate release 
and restoration to his regiment signed by the 
President. 

Scott becomes a Hero in Battle, and dies a Glorions 

Death 

How truly and justly the President judged the 
boy was soon proven, for he became the best sol- 
dier in the regiment, and was always trying to 
help his comrades. He was offered a promotion, 



LINCOLN IN STORY 107 

but refused ; and when, some months later (in 
March, 1862), at a great battle on Warwick River, 
at Lee's Mills, his regiment was ordered to assault 
the (Miem)', he proved himself a hero worthy of 
tlie proud name, " An American Soldier." 

It was at four o'clocl: in the afternoon when 
the charge was sounded ; unclasping their belts 
and holding their ouns and cartridoe-boxes above 
their heads, tlie Verm outers dashed into and across 
the stream in front of the enemy's rifle-pits and 
captured them. 

Scott was one of the first to reach the bank, 
the first in the rifle-pits and the last to retreat, for 
the enemy was found to be too strong, and the 
Vermonters, being unsupported by other troops, 
were ordered to retreat, which they did under a 
terrible fire, leavino- half their number on the field. 

In the retreat vScott carried a wounded offlcer 
across the river and saved his life. He then re- 
turned, in the face of the enemy, alone, and again 
brought over a wounded comrade.^ Once more 
he returned, and the enemy this time made him a 
target, yet he succeeded in rescuing the last man 
who w^as left on the opposite bank, but fell as he 
reached the shore completely riddled with bullets. 

He was carried off the field by his comrades ; 
but was so strong and povvcrful thnt he lived until 
the next morning. Then his comrades gathered 



I08 LINCOLN IN STORY 

about his cot, as he about to die, and he sent 
this last^ message to the President, who had saved 
his life : 

'' Tell the President that I have never forgotten 
the kind words he said to me at Chain Bridge ; 
that I have tried to be a good soldier and true 
to the flag ; that now, when I know I'm dying, 
I think of his kind face, and thank him again 
because he gave me a chance to fall like a soldier 
in battle, and not like a coward by the hands 
of my comrades." 

His face looked happy and contented. Not a 
groan escaped his lips. 

'' Good-by, boy's," he said almost cheerily, and 
closing his eyes, his hands folded across his breast, 
he was dead. 

Scott was buried at the foot of a noble oak- 
tree, his initial letters W. S. were cut into it, 
and his company fired a volley over his grave. 
........ 

It was some days before Scott's message was 
repeated to the President by Mr. Chittenden, 
when Lincoln expressed his sorrow at the boy's 
death, and added : '' He was a good boy — too 
good a boy to be shot for obeying nature. I am 
elad I interfered." 

Mr. Chittenden then said : '' Mr. Lincoln, I 
wish this matter could be written into history." 



LINCOLN IN STORY tOQ 

" Tut ! tut ! " Lincoln broke in. " None of that. 
You remember what Jeannie Dean said to the 
Queen when begging for the life of her sister ? " 

" I remember the incident, but not the language," 
replied Mr. Chittenden. < 

*' I remember both. This is the paragraph in 
point : 'It is not when we sleep soft and wake 
merrily that we think of other people's sufferings, 
but when the hour of trouble comes, and when 
the hour of death comes — that comes to high and 
low — oh, then, it isn't what we have done for 
oir/selves, but what we have done for others that 
we think on most pleasantly ! ' " 



CHAPTER XIII. 

" A little more light and a little less noise" — Lincoln's 
judgment produces the Monitor and revolutionizes 
the naval warfare of the world — Badly scared million- 
aires of New York rebuffed by Lincoln — The girl 
with a singing in her head — Amysterious Englishman 
advances five million dollars to our Government. 
During these eventful years, the dreadful losses 
of life in battle, the terrible defeats at Bull Run, 
Manassas, Antietam5' etc., produced a feeling of 
intense anxiety throughout the North which at 
times vented itself in faultfmdings frequently most 



no LINCOLN IN STORY 

unjust. Editors of many papers did not scruple 
to blame the President for everything. He was 
thus often made to carry the burdens of misfor- 
tunes resulting from bad generalship at the front^ 
for which he was, of course, in no way responsible. 
He was also criticised mott harshly by Horace 
Greeley, who had always opposed him, and other 
radical abolitionists, because he did not at once 
issue a proclamation of emancipation. The Presi- 
dent, bowed with the awful responsibilities of the 
great conflict, and suffering, as he did, untold 
agony on account of the misery and hardships it 
produced, felt keenly these slurs upon his Ad- 
ministration, but struggled bravely on in his mighty 
task, seldom murmuring any complaint. 

On one occasion, however, after the New York 
Tribune had been particularly offensive, a noted 
newspaper correspondent from New York called 
upon Lincoln to urge some special plan of cam- 
paign. The President, weary and worn with many 
midnight vigils, after patiently listening to his 
caller, said : 

" Your New York papers remind me of a little 
story." And then, throwing one of his long legs 
over the other, while a liumorous smile played 
about his mouth, he continued : *' Some years ago 
there was a gentleman traveling through Kansas 
on horseback, as was the custom in those days. 



LINCOLN IN STORY lit 

There were few settlements and no roads, and he 
finally lost his way. To make matters worse, as 
night came on, a terrific thunder-storm suddenly 
arose, and peal on peal of thunder, following flashes 
of lightning, shook the earth or momentarily 
illuminated the scene. The terrified traveler then 
got off and led his horse, seeking to guide himself 
as best he might by the flickering light of the 
quick flashes of lightning. All of a sudden a 
tremendous crash of thunder brought the man to 
his knees in terror, and he cried out : 

•' ' O Lord ! If it's all the same to you, give 
us a little more lifjht and a little less noise.' " 

The gentleman appreciated the appropriateness 
of this application to the thunders of the New 
York press against Lincoln, and, after laughing 
heartily, assured him he would use his influence 
to "get more light and less noise" from that 
source. 

Lincoln s Experience as a Boatman gives its the 
Monitor against the Vnaniinous Opposition of 
the N^aval Board of Officers 

In the early part of the war (1862), the Con- 
federates thought they could destroy the warships 
of the Government by the construction of a large 
floating battery, covered with' steel armor, which 



112 LINCOLN IN STORY 

could resist the most powerful cannon-ball thert 
known. 

The Government soon heard of the building at 
Norfolk, Va., of this monster ram called the Mer- 
riniac, and, as the news spread throughout the 
country, a feeling of terror pervaded the nation ; 
for, besides ramming and sinking our war-ships, it 
could also destroy all the commerce of the seas 
and attack and bombard Washington, New York, 
and all the other seacoast towns. 

To meet this iron-clad boat Congress appro- 
priated a large sum of motiey for the building of 
a similar vessel called the Galena ; but this proved 
a failure, and the money was wasted. 

In this dilemma. Captain Kricsson came forward 
with his plan for the construction of an armored 
vessel with its battery placed in a revolving turret 
on the deck, the deck being almost level with 
the water. 

This plan was placed before the Board of Naval 
Construction and was ituanimously rejected. All 
the officers of the navy were opposed to the 
scheme, claiming that the heavy weight of the 
armor would sink the ship. Finally, in despair, 
Ericsson presented his plan to the President, who 
at once saw its practicability. 

To the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, who 
gaid that the armor would sink the boat, Lincoln 



LINCOLN IN STORY ll^ 

answered : " That Is a matter in arithmetic, Isn't 
it? We used to figure, on the Mississippi River, 
how much our fiatboats and steamboats could 
carry to a pound.'' 

Several meetlnc^s of the Board of Construction 
were then called to reconsider the matter, and 
finally the President's good sense and persistence 
prevailed, the board consenting to the construc- 
tion ot the Monitor. 

The building of this novel floating battery was 
j ushed with great vigor, Lincoln hoping to have 
it finished In time to meet the much-dreaded Mer- 
rimac. 

On January 30, 1862, the Monitor was launched, 
and, to the great surprise and disappointment of 
thj naval officers, and others who had ridiculed 
the undertaking, when It slid Into the water the 
vessel did not sink, but stood several inches more 
above the surface than Captain Ericsson had 
promised. Meanwhile the Confederate ram Mer- 
rimac was being rapidly finished, and was expected 
to come out from Norfolk on March 9th. On 
brlday, the 7th of March, the President^ in an 
interview with some naval officers, said : "You do 
not seem to take our little Monitor Into account. 
I believe in the Monitor and her commander. 
They should be In Hampton Roads [Norfolk] now ; 
she left New York two days ago." 



114 LINCOLN IN STORY 

The officers argued against his faith, saying, 
" The Monitor is an experiment untried. She 
may be at the bottom of the ocean. We know 
nothing of her." 

" No ! no ! " said Lincoln. ** I respect your 
opinion, as you know, but this time you are all 
wrong. The Monitor was one of my inspirations. 
I believed In her when her designs were first 
shown me. I caught some of the inventor's 
enthusiasm, which has been growing upon me 
ever since. I think she may be the veritable 
sling with a stone that shall smite the Philistine 

Merrimac in the forehead." 

The officers then left for the scene of the battle 
(which was expected in Hampton Roads, every 
hour) more hopeful, but not convinced. 

The very next day, Saturday, the 8th of March, 
1862, the dreaded Merrimac appeared, and In a few 
moments had rammed into and sunk the great sloop 
of war Cumberland, nearly all her crew perishing. 

The frieate ConQ^ress had been riddled, torn In 
pieces, and left a grounded wreck, her crew also 
perishing. 

The other great ship Minnesota had run aground ; 
and the iron monster, apparently satisfied with 
her day's work of destruction, returned to Norfolk 
with the evident intention of finishing the task 



next morning. 



Lincoln in story i i 5 

IT'.e news of this terrible disaster to the United 
Stater; navy, spread a feeling of gloom and fear 
over the entire country. Every one was asking, 
" Where is the Monitor ? " 

In the midst of this feeling of fear, Lincoln 
stood firm as a rock in his faith, sending out 
words of hope and encouragement, while his 
enemies were already ridiculing and laughing at 
Lincoln's little ** cheese-box," as the Monitor was 
called. 

Throughout all the Northern cities that Sunday 
morning prayers were offered in all the loyal 
churches for the success of the President's plans. 

Meanwhile the little Monitor, having been buf- 
feted by the waves of the ocean and driven by a 
storm into shelter, where she lay several hours, 
finally arrived in Hampton Roads, at two o'clock 
Sunday morning, and anchored by the side of the 
Minnesota. Here her officers learned of the ter- 
rible destruction of the preceding day, and pre- 
pared to meet the enemy at daybreak. 

Battle of Monitor and the Alerriniac 

ihe morning opened clear and warm, and many 
people gathered on the banks to witness the 
battle. 

The Confederates, jubilant over their victory 
of the day before, came to see the destruction of 



Il6 LINCOLN IN STORY « 

the United States battle-ship Minnesota, and the 
triumphant departure of their iron-clad monster 
for the Northern cities, to destroy, levy tribute, 
and humiliate the despised ''Yankees." 

Among those on the opposite bank were many 
officers and officials of the Government at Wash- 
ington, who had hurried down to see if "Lincoln's 
cheese-box," as many had sneeringly called the 
Monitor, would "really accomplish anything." 

They were possessed of a great fear and anx- 
iety, owing to the terrible destruction the Merri- 
mac had wrought the day before, and this feeling 
of dread was emphasized by the appearance near 
by of the wrecks of the Cumberland and the Con- 
gress. 

It was shortly after sunrise when the anxious 
watchers on board the Minnesota discovered thick 
black smoke arising in the direction of Norfolk, 
and soon the Merrimac hove in sight. 

As she rapidly approached, intending to ram 
and sink the Minnesota, her officer discovered a 
little round thing, which in the distance looked as 
much like a big stove-pipe hat as anything, float- 
ing on the water near her intended victim. Pres- 
ently it was seen to move, and was coming toward 
them, and they soon discovered tliat it was the 
round turret of the Monitor, for her deck was so 
low (being but a few inches above the water) it 



LINCOLN L\ STORY II7 

could scarcely be seen. 

The little '* cheese-box on a raft " showed no 
fear of the approaching iron ram. As soon as the 
Merrlmac came in sight, Lieutenant Worden, com- 
mander of the Monitor, ordered '' full steam ahead,' 
and bravely advanced to meet her. 

It was a moment of supreme and awful sus- 
pense ! 

It seemed impossible that the little thing with 
but two guns in its revolving turret could whip 
that formidable floating fortress of steel, with its 
ten guns, which was bearing down upon her. 

As they neared each other, the Washington offi- 
cials on the bank held their breath in fear and 
dread. 

But in spite of this feeling, the brave and un- 
daunted advance of the Monitor, carr) ing the be- 
loved emblem of Liberty, aroused a certain feeling 
of pride. 

It seemed so audacious ! It was a pygmy chal- 
lenging a giant! It was David and Goliath over 
again. 

The suspense was, however, soon broken by a 
shot from the Merrimac, which struck close to but 
did not hit the Monitor. Then, veering around, 
the Merrimac delivered her broadside of four guns. 
Some of these hit the deck of the Monitor, i ut 
glanced off, doing no harm. 



IlB LINCOLN IN STORY 

The Union officers began to breathe agaui, but, 
" Why didn't the Monitor reply to their fire ? " 

Ah ! Lieutenant Worden was waiting for closer 
contact ! - 

Now the important moment had arrived, and 
from the turret of the Monitor there came the 
sharp retort of solid shot, followed quickly by the 
second gun, which revolved into place with perfect 
ease. 

The tremendous crash of these solid shot on 
the steel armor of the ram could be heard over 
the thunders of the guns themselves, and the feel- 
ing of dread in the hearts of the Union men 
changed to wonder and hope. 

Aeain the Merrimac delivered her broadside, 
and this time a shot struck the Monitor's turret 
fairly, but glanced off, doing no apparent harm. 

This began to look encouraging, indeed, and 
some of the Union officers who had scoffed at 
Lincoln's '' cheese-box " experienced a sudden change 
of heart, one of them exclaiming to his friend in 
an absent-minded way, " What a wonderful man 
' Old Abe ' is, anyway ! " 

The Merrimac, after trying vainly to beat off 
her persistent little foe, with shot and shell, finally 
determined to ram her. 

Awaiting a favorable moment, her commander, 
Colonel Wood, oave the order, and with ' full 



LINCOLN IN STORY IIQ 

steam ahead*' she rushed upon her diminutive 
opponent. This sudden movement produced a 
feeling of consternation in the minds of those 
watching" the fight on the Union side. 

It seemed that the o^reat iron-clad vessel would 
crush her antagonist by mere force of weight 
alone ; and, as she swiftly rode forward, the Moni- 
tor, lying almost broadside to her, seemed a help- 
less thing, doomed to certain annihilation. 

Again the watchers on shore caught their breath, 
and experienced a feeling of pity that such a brave 
and well-fought little craft should be destroyed by 
brute force alone. But lo ! when the ram struck 
the Monitor it did not sink or split, but was 
merely shoved along, until it swung around close 
to the side of her enemy. 

In this favorable position the Monitor delivered 
her fire rapidly and with telling effect upon the 
Merrimac. 

One shot, indeed, entered a port-hole of the 
iron monster, causing considerable destruction and 
killing and wounding several. 

Those on land could not repress a shout of 
wonder and joy at this unexpected exhibition of 
endurance of their little defender, for, practically, 
that little insignificant, round turret and hvo guns 
was all that stood between them and destruction 
by this dreaded " ram, " , 



120 LINCOLN IN STORY 

It was the kni.s^ht-errant of invention and sci- 
ence fighting for Columbia and her cause. 

Soon after this the Merrimac gave up the con- 
test and steamed back to Norfolk as fast as pos- 
sible having been seriously injured by the Moni- 
tors fire and fairly beaten. 

The latter remained, the unpretentious victor of 
one of the mo -a momentous events in the history 
of naval warfare. 

The officials and people of the Union side sent 
up a great shout when they saw the boasted "ram," 
the iron " terror " of the Confederacy, whipped, 
and cheers upon cheers were heard from the offi- 
cers and men on the Minnesota who had been 
saved from destruction by Lincoln's ''cheese-box." 
The Washington officials rushed to the telegraph 
office at Newport News, near by, and sent the 
gloricus news the President, wlio immediately had 
it sent over wires throughout the nation, and 
people, who had gone to churcli in the morning filled 
with gloom and apprehension, returning from the 
service were greeted by the newsboys shouting, 
** Great victory of the Monitor over the Merri- 
mac! 

The Assistant Secretary of the Navy afterward, 
speaking of the fight which he witnessed, said : 
'* The splendid handling of the Monitor throughout 
the battle was marvelous. The ^rst bold advance 



LINC<>LN' 'in 'STORf 1 2 1 

of the diminutive vessel against a giant like the 
Merrimac was grand and awe-inspiring. 

" One would have thouo^ht the Monitor a thine 
of life ; no man was visible. You saw her mov- 
ing around in a circle delivering her fire, always 
at the point of contact, and heard the crash of 
her shot against her armored foe above the thunder 
of her guns. It was indescribabl)^ grand. Now," 
continued the Secretary, " let me make a confession, 
and perform an act of simple justice. I never 
fully believed in- armored vessels until I saw this 
battle. I know all the facts combined to give 
us the Monitor. 

" I withhold no credit from Captain Ericsson, 
her inventor, but I know that the country is prin- 
cipally indebted for the construction of this vessel 
to President Lincoln and for the success of her 
trial to Captain Worden, her commander." 

The victory was received with loud huzzas and 
great rejoicing throughout the nation. 

Thus it will be seen that the common sense 
and wide experience of the President on the 
Western rivers during his early life succeeded in 
accomplishing for this country what the learned and 
scientific prejudices of the naval officers would 
have prevented. 



122 LINCOLN IN STORY 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Lincoln's "leg cases" — The widow and her wounded 
son— How Lincoln plowed around the Governor — 
The **chin fly" story — Lincohi and the sick drum- 
mer — The poor woman and her two sons 

The President so disliked to sign a death-war- 
rant that sometimes the judge-advocate general 
of the army despaired of punishing men in the 
army for cowardice and desertion. 

Lincoln would say, after he had explained a 
case, " Well, I will keep diis a few days until I 
have more time to read the testimony " ; or, again, 
" I must put this by until I can setde in my mind 
whether this soldier can better serve the country 
dead than living." 

Finally, one day the judge brought him the 
case of a soldier who, in the crisis of a battle, de- 
moralized his regiment by throwing down his gun 
and hiding behind a tree. The evidence was plain, 
and not denied — the court-martial condemned him 
to be shot. He had no father, g^ .mother, wife, or 
child to plead for him, and the judge thought 
surely this was a case that could only meet with 
the President's approval ; but Lincoln, after run- 
ning h.is fingers through his hair, said : *' Well, 
after all, judge, I think I must put this with my 



LINCOLN IN STORY 1 23 

' Jeo- cases. 

" Leg cases ! " exclaimed the judge, frowning at 
the supposed levity of the President. " What do 
you mean by ' leg cases,' sir ? " 

." WMiy, why," replied the President, "do you 
see those papers crowded Into those pigeonholes ? 
They are cases that you call by that long title, 
* Cowardice in the face of the enemy '; but I call 
them for short, my ' leg cases,' and I put it to 
you, and leave It to }'ou, to decide, for yourself, if 
Almighty God gives a man a cowardly pair of 
legs, how can he help them running away with 
him ? " 

The Wicioza and her Wounded Son 

In the spring of 1863, one morning a sad and 
anxious-looking lady appeared at P^ort Henr)-, 
Baltimore, before the commanding officer. 

vShe said : " I am a widow, a resident of Nash- 
ville, Tenn., but although a native of that State, 
I have no S3'mpathy with the rebellion. I have 
an only son who was a student at the outbreak 
of the war, and now', just after the battle of Nash- 
ville, I learn that, \vithout my consent, he has 
enlisted in the Confederate Army, and Ikis been 
severely wounded and taken prisoner by the Union 
forces. I have been searching for him ever since, 
following him to Louisville, Wheeling, W^ Va., 



124 LINCOLN IN STORY 

and thence to Fort Henry. Here I learn that he 
is in the hospital." 

The mother was anxious to see her boy, but 
only a short time before, orders had come from 
the War Department prohibiting any visitors to 
prisoners of war. 

The surgeon was sent for, and assured the 
faithful mother that her son would recover, and 
finally, to relieve her anxiety, the surgeon said : 

" Let me show you, madam, one or two of our 
prisoners' wards, so you may see for yourself how 
well our Government takes care of the sick and 
wounded enemies who are captured." 

The widow gladly accepted the invitation ; but 
they had hardly entered the room when the anx- 
ious woman discovered her boy through the half- 
opened door of an adjoining room. 

Rushing forward, she exclaimed, " Oh, my 
blessed boy, I must see you if I die for it ! " and 
quickly reached the cot where her son was lying. 

The astonished surgeon followed, only to see 
her on her knees holding her boy's head on her 
bosom. The kind-hearted surgeon then turned 
away and left them together undisturbed. 

The lady soon returned to the office and said : 
" Oh, sir, my boy is sorry he joined the army, 
and wishes to give his parole never to enter the 
Confederate service ao^an. Will the authorities 



LINCOLN IN STORY 12$ 

permit this? May I go again to headquarters?" 

" Certainly," said the surgeon, and soon after 
she had a letter from the commandant to the 
Secretary of War. 

In two days she returned from Washington and 
told her story : 

'' I took your note to General Hoffman, who 
went with me to Secretary Stanton's office. As 
we entered, the Secretary was writing at his desk. 
General Hoffinan said : ' Mr. Secretary, this is 
the lady I spoke to you about. She wishes to 
consult with you about releasing her son, a 
prisoner of war, wounded, in the hospital at Fort 
Henry/ 

"The general then left me alone. After a 
minute the Secretary turned in his chair and 
abruptly said, in a severe tone : 'So yo2i- are the 
woman who has a son, a prisoner of war, at Fort 
Henry ? ' 

" ' I am so unfortunate,' I said. Then the 
Secretary shouted in a loud voice : * I have noth- 
ing to say to you, and no time to waste over 
you. If you have raised up sons to rebel against 
the l:)est government under the sun, you and they 
must take the consequences.' 

" I attempted to tell him my story, but he 
would not listen, and fairly yelled at me in an 
insane rage — 



126 LINCOLN IN STORY 

" ' I don't want to hear a word . from you. I 
have no time to waste, and want you to go at 
once.' * 

"I left," she said, *' and am thankhil I escaped 
alive. Oh ! why are such men entrusted uith au- 
thority ? " and she sobbed as if her heart would 
break. 

After a moment of silence the commandant of 
Fort Henry asked if she could go again to Wasli- 
ington ? She answered, " Yes, but not to see that 
man." 

The next day he drew up a statement of the 
case, addressed to the President, asking a parole 
for the boy, which the surgeon signed, as did also 
the lady. 

After an absence of three days she returned, 
with joy in her face and wath tears glistening in 
her eyes. Handing the officer the paper with the 
order freeing her sori written in pencil upon it, 
she exclaimed with deep emotion : " My boy is 
free ! Thank God for such a President ! He is the 
soul of goodness and honor." 

She them gave the commandant the order, 
which read as follows : 

** General : You will deliver to the bearer, 
Mrs, Winston, her son, now^ a prisoner of war at 
Fort Henry, and permit her to take him where 



LINXOLN IN STORY 12/ 

she Will, upon his taking the proper parole - never 
to take up arms against the United States. 

*' [Signed.] Abraham Lincoln." 

The lady then said: *'The President treated 
me with tlie kindness of a brother. When I was 
shown into his presence he was alone ; he immedi- 
ately arose and, pointing to a chair by his side, 
said : ' Take this seat, madam, and tell me what 
I can do for you.' I took the envelope and asked 
if he would read the enclosures. ' Certainly,' he 
replied and proceeded to read the documents very 
carefully. When he had finished, he turned to 
me, and with emotion said ; * Are you, madam, 
the unhappy mother of this wounded and im- 
prisoned boy ? ' 

'' ' I am,' I said. 

* " * And do you believe he will honor his parole 
if I permit him to take it and go with you?' he 
continued. > 

"' ' I am read3% j\Ir. President, to risk my per- 
sonal liberty upon it,' I replied. ;;^ 

" ' You shall have your boy, my dear madam,' 
he said. ' To take him from the ranks of rebellion 
and give him to a loyal mother is a better invest- 
ment for this Government than to give him up to 
its deadly enemies.' 

"Then, taking the envelope, he \vrote with his 



128 LINCOLN IN STORY 

own pencil the order which you see upon it. As 
he handed it to me he said : 'There! Give that 
to the commandant at the fort. You will be per- 
mitted to take your boy with you where you will, 
and God grant he may prove a great blessing to 
you and an honor to his country.' " 

The boy was soon removed from the fort, and, 
under the tender nursing of his mother, was able, 
in a few months, to resume his studies in a 
Northern college. 

Hozv Lincoln '' Ploived Arottnd " the Governor 

General James B. Fry . related that upon one 
occasion the Governor of a State came to him full 
of complaints against the President about the 
number of troops repuired from his State, and the 
method of drafting them. 

" I finally took him to the Secretary of War," 
said the general, "where, after a stormy and fruit- 
less interview with Stanton, he went alone to see 
■the President. 

*^ After waiting some hours, anxiously expect- 
ing important orders from the President, or at 
least a summons to the White House to explain 
matters, the Governor returned, and said, with 
a pleasant smile, ' I am going home by the next 
train, and merely dropped in on the way to say 
" Good-by ! '" 



LINCOLN IN STORY 1 29 

'* He (lid iu)t speak of his business interview 
with Lincohi. ant! <is soon as I could see the Presi- 
dent I said : 'Mr. I^x.'sident, I am anxious to learn 

how you elisposed of Governor . He went 

to your office tiom the War Department in a 
towering" rage. I suppose ycu found it necessary 
to make Inrge concessions to him, as he returned 
from you entirely satisfied ' 

" ' Oh, no,' replied the President. ' I did not 
concede anything-. You know how that Illinois 
farmer managed the big log that lay in the middle 
of his field ? ' 

" ' To the inquiries of his neighbors one Sunday, 
he announced that he had gotten rid of the big log.' 

" ' '• Got rid of it ! " said they. '' How did you 
do it? It was too big to haul away, too knotty 
to split, too w^et and soggy to burn ; what did 
you do ? " 

« ( u \\Tq\\^ now, boys," replied the farmer, " if 
you won't tell the secret, 111 tell you how. I just 
plow^ed around it." 

" ' Now,' said Lir.col!^, * don't tell anybody, but 
that's the wa\^ I got nd of the Governor. / /usl 
plowed aroitihi liini ; i)ut it took me three mortal 
hours to do it, and I was afraid every minute he'd 
see what I was at.' " 

Thus the great President had settled a difficult 
matter by simply entertaining the Go vein or with 



130 LINCOLN IN STORY 

b.is wit and humour for three hours. 

The Presidential Chin-fly Story 

One clay before Lincohi's renomination for the 
presidency, a friend spoke to him of a certain 
member of his Cabinet who was also a candidate 
in opposition to him. 

Mr. Lincoln said : *' I don't concern myself 
about that. It is important to the country that 
the department over which my rival presides 
should be administered with vigor and energy, 
and whatever will stimulate the Secretary of tliat 
department to such action will do gooci. 

" My friend," the president continued, " you 
were brought up on a farm, were you not? Then 
you know what a chin-fly is. 

" My brother and I," he went on, " were once 
plowing on a Kentucky farm. I was driving and 
he held the plow. The horse was lazy, but on 
one occasion he rushed across the field so fast 
that I, with my long legs, could scarcely keep 
pace with him. On reaching the end of the 
furrow I found an enormous chin -fly fastened on 
him, and knocked him off. 

•' My brother asked ; * Why did you do that ? ' 
I told him I did not want the horse bitten in that 
way. ' Why ,' said he, ' tliat's all that made him 



LINCOLN IN STORY 131 

** Now/' said Lincoln, " if Secretary has a 

presidential chin-fly on b.im, I'm not going to 

knock it off, if it will only make his depart- 
ment go!' 

Lincoln and the Sick Dmninier Boy 

Among a large number of persons waiting in 
the room to speak with the President on a certain 
day in November, 1864, was a small, pale, deli- 
cate-looking boy, apparently thirteen years old. 

Mr. Lincoln saw him standing, looking feeble 
and faint, and said : 

" Come here, my boy, and tell me what you 
want." 

The boy advanced, placed his hand on the arm 
of the President's chair, and with bowed head and 
timid accents said : " Mr. President, I have been a 
drummer boy in a regiment for two years, and my 
colonel eot an^ry with me and turned me off. I 
was taken sick and have been in hospital for a 
long time. Ihis is the first time I have bee:i 
out, and I came to see if you could not do 
something for me." 

The President looked at him kindl)", and said : 
'' Where do you live ? " 

" I have no home," replied the boy. 

" Where is your father ? " continued Lincoln. 

"He died in the army." 



132 LINCOLN IN STORY 

** Where is your mother ? " 

" My mother is dead also. I have no home, 
no mother, no father, brother or sister, and " — 
bursting into tears — '' no friends ; nobody cares 
for me." 

Mr. Lincoln's eyes filled with tears, and he said : 

" Can't you sell newspapers ? " 

*' No,"replied the boy, " I am too weak ; and 
the surgeon in the hospital said I must leave, and 
I have no home and no place to go." 

The President at once took out one of his own 
cards and wrote on it, " Take care of this poor 
boy," and addressed it to an official to whom his 
request was law, saying, as he handed it to the 
boy, "There, my little man, you will find some 
one who will care for you." 

The wan face of the little drummer boy lighted 
up with a happy smile as he took the card and 
stammered his thanks, and he went away con- 
vinced that he had at last a true friend in the 
person of the President. 

The Poor IVoman and her Two So7ts 

An instance showing the President's keen sense 
of justice occurred during the closing year of the 
war, as related by a Mr. Murtagh, of the 
Washington Republican. Said he : 

" I was waiting my turn to speak to the Presi- 



LINCOLN IN STORY I 33 

dent when my attention was attracted by the sad, 
patient face of a woman advanced in life, who, in 
a faded shawl and hood, was among the appli- 
cants for an interview. Presently Mr. Lincoln 
turned to her, saying in his accustomed manner : 

" ' Well, my good woman, what can I do for 
you this morning ? ' 

" ' Mr. President,' said she, * my husband and 
three sons all went into the army ; my husband 

was killed in the battle of . I get along very 

badly since then living all alone, and I thought 
I would come and ask you to release to me my 
eldest son.' 

" Mr Lincoln looked in her face a moment, and 
in his kindest accents replied : 

'* * Certainly ! certainly ! If you have given us 
all and your prop has been taken away, you are 
justly entitled to one of your boys.' 

" He immediately made out the order dis- 
charging the young man, which the woman took, 
and thanking him gratefully, went away. 

'' I had forgotten the circumstance," continued 
Mr. Murtagh, " till last week, when happening 
to be there again, who should come in but the 
same woman. It happened that she had gone 
herself to the front with the President's order, and 
ascertained that the son she was in search of had 
been mortally woynded in a recent battle and taken 



134 LINXOLN IN STORY 

to the hospital. She found the hospital, but her 
boy was dead or died wbJle she was there. The 
surgeon in charg-e made a memorandum of the 
facts on the back of the President's order, and, 
almost broken-hearted, the poor woman had found 
her way again into Mr. Lincohi's presence. 
He was much affected by her appearance and 
story, and said : 

" ' I know what you wisli me to do now, and I 
shall do it without your asking. I shall release 
to you your second son.' Upon this he took his 
pen and commenced writing the order. 

" While he was writing, the grief-stricken 
woman stood by his side, the tears streaming- 
down her fece, and passed her hand softly over 
his head, stroking his hair as I have seen a fond 
mother caress her son. 

" By the time he had finished writnig, his own 
heart and eyes were full. He handed her the 
paper, saying, most tenderl)-, and controlling his 
voice with difficulty : ' Now you have one and I 
have one of the other two left ; that is no more 
than right.' 

" She took the paper, and reverently placing her 
hand upon his head, said : 

" ' The Lord bless you, Mr. Lincoln ! May 
you live a thousand years, and may you alwa)s 
be the head of this preat nation.' " 



f 



LINCOLN IN STOKY 1 35 

CHAPTER XV. 

"It was the baby did it" — The President ejects an 
insolent officer — He repeats poetry for Mr. 
Carpenter. 

The President was always very fond of little 
cliildren. In Springfielcl he had one or two of 
his little boys with him nearly always. And 
when his favorite son Willie died, in February, 
1862, the loss nearly drove Lincoln insane. He 
suffered so intensely and his grief was so 
great that his friends became anxious for his 
health. 

His love for little children, and kind consideration 
for the poor in distress, is well illustrated by the 
following' anecdote, which was related by " old 
Daniel," the private servant of President Lincoln : 

A poor woman from Philadelphia had been 
waiting three days with a baby in her arms to 
see the President. It appeared from her story that 
her husband had sent a substitute to the army, 
but afterw^ard, when intoxicated, was induced to 
enlist. Upon reaching the post assigned to his 
regiment he deserted, thinking the Government was 
not entitled to his services. Returning home, he 
was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be 
shot. 



136 LINCOLN IN STORY 

Said Daniel, in relating it: "She had been 
waiting three days and there wasn't a chance for 
her to get in. 

** Late in the afternoon of the third day the 
President was going through a passage to his pri- 
vate room to get a cup of tea. On the way he 
heard a baby cry ; he instantly went back to his 
office and rang the bell. 

" ' Daniel,' said he, ' is there a woman with a 
babe in the anteroom ? ' 

" I said : ' Yes, sir, and if you will allow me to 
say it, it is a case you ought to see, for it is a 
ma'.ter of life and death.' 

" Lincoln said : ' Send her to me at once.' 

** She went in, told her story, and the President 
pardoned her husband. 

*' As the woman came out from his presence 
her eyes were lifted in prayer, and tears were 
streaming down her cheeks. I went up to her, 
and, pulling her shawl, said : ' Madam, it was the 
baby that did it.' " 

7Vie President ejects an Insolent Office f 

That Mr. Lincoln could be firm in the cause 
of justice, as well as lenient in the cause of mercy, 
is shown by the following incident which occurred 
at the White House in 1 864 : 

Among the callers one day there appeared an 



LINCOLN LN STORY 1 37 

officer who had been cashiered from the service. 

He had prepared an ehborate defense of him- 
self, and he consumed much time in reading it 
to the President. 

When he had finished, Mr. Lincoln replied 
that even upon his own statement of the case the 
facts did not warrant his (tlie President's) interfer- 
ence. Greatly disappointed and crestfallen, the 
officer withdrew. A few days afterward he came 
again and went over practically the same ground 
without accomplishing his purpose. 

The third time he forced his way into Mr. 
Lincoln's presence, who, with great forbearance, 
again listened to the repetition of his arguments, 
but made no reply. 

The man evidently seeing in Mr. Lincoln's 
face no sympathy for him, turned abruptly and 
said : 

" Well, Mr. President, I see you are fully de- 
termined not to do me justice." 

This was too much even for Mr. Lincoln, who, 
without showing any feeling, quietly arose, and 
laying some papers upon the desk, suddenly seized 
the man by his coat-collar and marched him to 
the door, saying, as he ejected him into the hall, 
" Sir, I give you iViir warning never to show 
yourself in this room again. I can bear censure 
but not insult." 



138 LINCOLN IN STORY 

In a whining tone the man begged for his 
papers which he had dropped. 

*' Begone, sir," said the President. '' Your papers 
will be sent to you. I never wish to see your 
face again." 

Sitting for his Portrait — TJie President repeats 
Passages front Shakespeare and other Poets 
— " Why should the Spirit of Mortal be Proudl'' 

That Lincoln was one of the best educated and 
most refined men who ever occupied the presi- 
dential office is proved beyond a doubt as we be- 
come better acquainted with his remarkable life. 
'J his is the more to be wondered at because he 
had practically no schooling, and never even saw 
the inside of a college until after he had become 
a distinguished lawyer. 

But he thirsted after knowledge. He never 
ceased to be a student ; and even while President, 
with all the terrible burdens of war resting upon 
him, he was a frequent visitor to the Smith- 
sonian Institution, where Mr. Joseph Henry, the 
superintendent, found him one of his most appre- 
ci itivc and interesting callers. 

Mr. B. F. Carpenter, the artist, who painted 
the great historic picture, Signing the Emanci- 
pation Proclamation, during the year 1864, was, 
for six months, daily at the White House. Among 



LINCOLN IN STORY 1 39 

the many interesting incidents which came under 
his observation nothing was more characteristic 
than the President's great fondness for poetry. 
At one sitting, Lincohi repeated from memory 
the king's soliloquy from Hamlet, commencing 
with the line, *' Oh, my offense is rank, it smells 
to heaven." 

He then quoted from the play of Richard III 
the solilocpy and other lines, showing himself fa- 
miliar with these and other works of the " bard 
of Avon." At this sitting, at the request of Mr. 
Carpenter, he repeated one of his most favorite 
poems, which through Lincoln's fondness for it 
hns become famous. It is given herewith for its 
lofty sentiment, its general tone of sadness, no 
less than the beauty of its thought ; the simple 
directness of its expression illustrates in an ad- 
mirable manner the character of the great martyr 
President. 

on ! WHY SHOULD the spirit of mortal be 

PROUD ? 

BY WILLIAM KNOX 

Oh ! why should the spirit of mortal be proud .? 
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 
A flash of the Hghtning, a break of the wave, 
He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. 



I40 LINCOLN IN STORY 

The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, 
Be scattered around, and together be laid ; 
And the young and the old, and the low and the high, 
Shall molder to dust, and together shall lie. 

The infant a mother attended and loved ; 
The mother that infant's affection who proved ; 
The husband, that mother and infant who blest — 
Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. 

The hand of the king that the scepter hath borne, 
The brow of the priest that the miter has worn, 
The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave. 
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. 

The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap, 
The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep, 
The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread. 
Have faded away like the grass that we tread. 

So the multitude goes — like the flower or the weed 
That withers away to let others succeed ; 
So the multitude comes — even those we behold, 
To repeat every tale that has often been told. 

For we are the same our fathers have been ; 
We see the same sights our fathers have seen ; 
We drink the same stream, w^e view the same sun, 
And run the same course our fathers have run. 

The thougts we are thinking, our fathers would think ; 
From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would 
shrink ; 



LINCOLN IN STORY 14! 

To the life we are clinging-, they also would cling; 
But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing. 

They loved — but the story we can not unfold ; 
They scorned — but the heart of the haughty is cold ; 
They grieved — but no wail from their slumber will come ; 
They joyed — but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. 

Yea ! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, 
Are mingled together in sunshine and rain ; 
And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, 
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 

* Tis a wink of an eye — ' tis the draught of a breath — 
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death. 
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud — 
Oh ! why should the spirit of mortal be proud } 



Upon another occasion an actor who, Hke many 
others, thought the President merely a vulgar 
ignoramus, upon being Introduced to Lincoln, was 
astonished at his great knowledge of Shake- 
speare's plays, and at his ready and just criticism 
of Mr. Hackett, the Falstaff of his time, of whom 
the President said : " Hackett's lack of Information 
regarding Shakespeare's plays caused me to doubt 
that he had ever read the text.' The actor found 
the President a better Shakespearean scholar than 
himself, and afterward ' thanked his friend for 



142 LINCOLN IN STORY 

permitting him to know the President as a gentle- 
man and a scliolar. 



CHAPTER XVL 

** By Jingo! Butler or no Butler, here goes" — He tells 
General Grant some stories — Gives freedom to many 
imprisoned for resisting the draft — The Gettysburg 
address. 

" By yingo ! Butler or no Butler, Jiere goes " 

One morning a Congressman went up to the 
White House on business, and saw in the ante- 
room an old man crouched all alone in a corner, 
crying as if his heart would break. 

This was so common an occurrence that he 
paid no attention to it ; but on going again the 
next day^> on business, he saw the same man 
crying, and stopped, saying to him, '-What's the 
matter with you, my man ? " 

The man, in answer, told him the story of his 
son who had been convicted by a court-martial in 
Butler's army and sentenced to be shot the next 
week. 



LINCOLN IN STORY 1 43 

He said also : " Our Congressman is so con- 
vinced of his guilt that he will not help or in- 
terfere." 

"Well," said Mr. A , "I will take you into 

the President's office after I get through, and you 
can tell Mr. Lincoln all about it." 

When Mr. A entered and introduced this 

man, Mr. Lincoln said : **Well, my old friend, 
what can I do for you ? " 

The man then repeated the story he had told 
to Mr. A . 

While he was speaking the President's face 
became sad and serious as he replied : 

" I am sorry to say I can do nothing for you. 
Listen to this telegram received from General 
Butler yesterday." 

The President then read the following : 

" Mr. President : I pray you not to interfere 
with the court-martial of this army. You will 
destroy all discipline among the soldiers. 

"[Signed.] B. F. Butler." 

As the President read thc.,2 words, they seem- 
ed like a death-knell to the poor bo)', and the 
old man's anguish and despair mastered him so 
completely that he burst into sobs which shook 
his whole body. His grief affected Lincoln very 



144 LINCOLN IN STORY 

deep])', and after a minute's struggle with him- 
self, lie exclaimed : 

"By Jingo! Butler or no Butler, here goes." 
He took the pen, and writing a few words, 
handed them to the man. 

Mr. Lincoln's exclamation led the applicant to 
think he had written an order for his son's release, 
so, when he read the President's order as follows : 
*'Job Smith is not to be shot until further 
orders from me. Abraham Lincoln." 

he said : " Why, Mr. President, I thought it was 
to be a pardon ; but you say, ' Not to be shot 
till further orders,' and you may order him to be 
shot next week ! " 

Lincoln smiled at the man's fears, and replied : 

" Well, my old friend, I see you are not very 

well acquaiiited with me. If your son never looks 

on death till further crders from me to shoot 

him, he will live to be a great deal older than 

Methuselah." 

The man now understood the President's 

kindly intention to pardon his son, as soon as he 

could, without offending the general, and went 

away happy and grateful. 

Lincoln tells General Grant a Funny Story 

A short time before the final surrender of the 
Confederates, General Grant told the President 



LINCOLN IN STORY 145 

that the war must soon come to an end, and 
asked him whether he should try to capture 
Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President, or let 
him escape from the country. 

Lincoln said : " That reminds me of a story. 
" There was once an Irishman who had signed 
the Father Mathews temperance pledi^e. A few 
days after, he became terribly thirsty, and finally 
applied to a bartender in a saloon for a glass of 
lemonade, and while it was being mixed he leaned 
over and whispered to him, ' And couldn't ye put 
a little brandy in it, all unbeknownst to meself ? ' " 

He then said : " Let Davis escape all unbeknown 
to yourself if you can." 

Lincoln gives Freedom to the Men in Pennsylvania 
Imprisoned f 07" resisting the Draft 

Mr. Joshua R. Speed, the tried and true;:friend 
of Mr. Lincoln, while residing in Springfield, 111., 
ogives the followino- account of his last interview 
with the President, which occurred in Washington 
about ten days prior to his second inauguration : 

" Congress was drawing to a close ; the Presi- 
dent had to gi\e much attention to bills he was 
iibout to si'^ii. ,> The Lrreat war was at its heii^ht . 
\isitors from all parts of the country were coming 
and going to the President, with tlicir complaints 
and grievances, from morning until night, with 



146 LINCOLN IN STORY 

almost as much regularity as the ebb and flow of 
tlie tide, and he was worn down in health and 
spirit. 

" On this day, when I entered the room, I 
noticed, sitting near the fireplace, dressed in hum- 
ble attire, two ladies modestly waiting their turn. 
One after another the visitors came and went, 
some satisfied, other displeased at the result of 
their mission. The hour had arrived to close the 
door against all further callers. 

" No one was left in the room except the 
President, the two ladies, and myself. With a 
rather peevish and fretful air he turned to them 
and said : ' Well, ladies, what can I do for you ? ' 

" They both commenced speaking at once. 

** From what they said, he soon learned that 
one was the wife and the other was the mother 
of men who had resisted the draft in western 
Pennsylvania. 

*' * Stop,' said he, ' don't say any more. Give 
me your petition.' 

" The old lady responded : ' Mr. Lincoln, we've 
got no petition, we couldn't wTite one, and had 
no money to pay for writing it, and I thought 
best to come to see you.' 

'* ' Oh ! ' said he, ' I understand your cases.* 

** He ranor his bell and ordered one of the mes- 
sengers to tell General Dana to bring him the 



LINCOLN IN STOR\ 147 

names of all the men in prison for resisting the 
draft in western Pennsylvania. 

" The general soon came with the list. 

" Lincoln then inquired if there was any differ- 
ence in the charges or degrees of guilt. 

"The general replied that he knew of none. 

** * Well, then,' said the President, ' these fel- 
lows have suffered long enough, and I have 
thought so for some time, and now that my mind 
is on the subject, I believe I will turn out the 
whole flock. So draw up the order, general, and 
I will sign it.' 

'* It was done, and the general left the room. 

" Turning to the women, Lincoln said : ' Now, 
ladies, you can go.' 

" The younger of the two ran forward and was 
in the act of kneeling in thankfulness. 

" ' Get up,' he said, ' don't kneel to me, but 
thank God and go.' 

" The old lady now came forward with tears 
in her eyes to express her gratitude, ' Good-by, 
Mr. Lincoln/ said she. ' I shall probably never 
see you again till we meet in heaven.' 

*' These were her exact words. She had the 
President's hand in hers, and he was deeply 
moved. 'iV 

"He instantly took her right hand in both ot 
his own, and, following her to the door, said : ' I 



148 LINCOLN IN STORY 

am afraid, with all my troubles, I shall never get 
to the resting-place you speak of, but if I do, 
I am sure I shall find you. That you wish me 
to get there is, I believe, the best wish ^^ou could 
make for me. Good-by.' 

" We were now alone. I said to him : ' Lincoln, 
with my knowledge of your nervous sensibility, 
it is a wonder that such scenes as this don't kill 
you.' 

'' He thought for a moment, and then answered 
in a languid voice : ' Yes, you are to a certain 
deo^ree rio;ht. I oug-ht not to undersfo what I so 
often do. I am very unwell now ; my feet and 
hands of late seem to be always cold, and I ought, 
perhaps, to be in bed. But things of this sort 
you have just seen don't hurt me, for, to tell you 
the truth, that scene is the only thing to-day that 
has made me forget my condition, or given me 
any pleasure. I have in that order made two 
people happy alleviated the distress of many a 
poor soul whom I never expect to see. ' That old 
lady,' he continued, ' was no counterfeit. The 
mother spoke out in all the features of her face. 
It is more than one can often say, that in doing 
right one has made two people happy in one day. 

" ' Speed, die when I may, / 7aa7i^ it said of 
me by those zvJio knozv me best, that I always 
plucked a thistle and planted a flower whe7i I 



LINCOLN IN STORY I49 

thought a floiver wan Id grow,* " 

Liyicohi s Address at Gettysburg, November /p, i86j 

** Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers 
brought forth upon this continent a new nation, 
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the propo- 
sition tliat all men are created equal. 

" Now we are enoraoed in a 'crreat civil war 
testing whether that nation, or any nation, so con- 
ceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We 
are met on a great battlefield of that war. We 
have, come to dedicate a portion of that field, as 
a final resting-place for those who here gave their 
lives that that nation might live. It is altogether 
fitting and proper that we should do this. 

'' But in a larger sense we can not dedicate — 
we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this 
ground. The brave men, living and dead, who 
strue^led here, have consecrated it far above our 
power to add or detract. 

''The world will little note, nor long remember^ 
what we say here, but it can never forget what 
they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to 
be dedicated here to the unfinished work which 
they who fought here have thus far so nobly 
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated 
to the orfeat task remain i no: before us — that from 
these honored dead we take increased devotion to 



150 LINCOLN IN STORY 

that cause for which they gave the last full 
measure of devotion — tJiat we here Jiighly resolve 
that these dead shall not have died in vain — that 
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of 
freedom — and that government of the people, by 
the people, for the people shall not perish from the 
earth,'* 



CHAPTER XVII. 

His second inauguration — The President at Petersburg- 
is mistaken for a rebel — The Confederate Govern- 
ment destroyed — Lincoln enters Richmond, amid 
demonstrations of great joy from emancipated 
slaves — General Pickett's wife and the President 
— Lincoln's last official act was to save a life — His 
assassination — His Code of War adopted at the 
Peace Conference at The Hague. 

On March 4, 1865, Lincoln was inaugurated 
the second time. In his addres the following 
paragraph occurred : 

** With malice toward none ; with charity for 
all; with'' firmness in the right as God gives us 
to see the right, let us strive to finish the work 
we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds ; to care 
for him who shall have borne the battle, and 
for his widow and his orphan ; to do all which 



LINCOLN IN STORY l5[ 

may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace 
among" ourselves, and with all nations." 

The lofty and sublime thought here expressed 
exercised a powerful and healing influence upon the 
mines of the people, which survived even the 
terrible shock of the President's assassination which 
followed so soon afterward. 

Lincoln ivipersonates a Virginian Tobacco Owner 
and is called a Rebel by a Union Officer 

Dr. J. E. Burriss, of New York, who was serv- 
ing as a soldier in the Union Army and was a 
participant in the taking of Petersburg, related to 
the writer the following incident which illustrates 
the great President's appreciation of the humorous 
and his willingness to take or make a joke : 

" When the advance of the Union Army entered 
Petersburg, guards were at once placed about the 
public buildings and tobacco warehouses. We 
bo)'s, many of us, wanted tobacco, and when we 
came upon a large warehouse, near which we halted, 
a grand rush for the place was made. But there 
we met the guards with ' strict orders ' not to 
permit any foraging. 

'* There was a general protest, some saying, 
*' We deserve all we can take, after ficrhtine 
and marching so many days.' 

*' P^inally, grumbling groups of soldiers formed 



152 LINCOLN IN STORY 

and talked the matter over with considerable re- 
sentment at the commanding general for his pro- 
tection of the enemy's property. ' To the victors 
belong the spoils' was the general cry. 

" While we were thus considering ' ways and 
means ' - of getting at their tobacco, and cursing 
the commanding general, one of us spied an 
elderly man standing some distance off. He wore 
a slouch hat, and his brown, sunburned face and 
general appearance suggested to the soldier that 
he was a Southerner. Suddenly a soldier exclaim- 
ed : ' Let's go over and see that old fellar. Perhaps 
he owns the warehouse!' 

'' So a delegation approached the ' c^ld Vir- 
ginian,' as they supposed, and the spokesman ac- 
costed him thus : 

** ' Say, do you own that tobacco warehouse ? ' 

** The 'old fellar,' with a smile and twinkle in 
his eyes, remembered long afterward, said slowly 
and with a sort of drawl : 

'' • Well, perhaps I do, boys. Whe do you 
want to know ? * 

*' * Well, you see, w^e've been a-fighting and 
marching, and we're hungry for some tobacco^ 
and the blamed guard won't let us have a sir.i^le 
chew.' 

•' * That does appear to be rathor rou^li, I 
reckon. It's a shame,' answered the old Ui.dv, 



LINCOLN IN STORY 1 53 

sympatlietically. 

'* Thus encouraged, several flocked around him 
and asked if he would give us some. 

*' The old * Southerner ' quietly walked over to 

the entrance and asked the guard : ' May I see 

the officer in command, please ? ' 

*' Upon this a young lieutenant with a brilliant 

new uniform pompously strode forward. To the 

request of the * farmer ' the young officer brusquely 

answered : 

" * Who are you ? Do you own this warehouse ? ' 

" With a sudden look of surprise and pain at 
the officer's manner, the ' Southerner' said : 

" ' Will you please call your superior officer ? * 

" * Not for any rebel son of a *, re- 
plied the lieutenant, almost bursting with his own 
importance. 

*' At this, the 'rebel' took out a notebook, and 
writing hastily, asked if there was an orderly with 
a horse to be had ; and one of the men, all of 
whom were ashamed of the lieutenant, came for- 
ward and volunteered to deliver the note, which 
was addressed to General'U. S. Grant. 

'*In a few minutes Genenral Grant covered 
with dust, came galloping up in greate hast. He 
sprang from his horse and, grasping the hand of 
the ' old rebel,' exclaimed : 

** * Mr. President, how can I serve you ? ' 



154 LINCOLN IN STORY 

" The lieutenant now became pale, and trem- 
bled with fear, while the soldiers sent up a shout ; 
as the news spread, cheering could be heard 
among the crowds in the distance. Approaching 
the President, the abashed young officer stam- 
mered an apology, expecting instant dismissal. 

*' Lincoln, with some severity, said to him : 
' Young man, don't always judge by appearances. 
And treat your elders with more respect in the 
future.' The boys were then given a sufficient 
quantity of tobacco to satisfy their desires for 
some time/' 

Lincoln enters Richmond ainid the Wildest Enthic- 
siasm of tlie Colored People 

A few weeks after the inauguration. General 
Grant's stubborn campaign against the Confed- 
erate Army around Richmond culminated in the 
great battle of Five Forks, Va., and on April 2d 
Richmond, the Capital of the Confederacy, was 
evacuated by the Confederate Army. The Na- 
tional troops found the city in flames and used 
every effort to extinguish them. 

On April 9th General Lee surrendered the last 
of the Confederate armies at Appomattox. 

Mr. Lincoln, with members of his Cabinet and 
some friends, on the loth of April visited Rich- 
mond, and walking like a simple citizen through 



LINCOLN IN STORY 1 55 

the streets, was given an enthusiastic welcome by 
the colored people, who had received their free- 
dom from slavery at his hands. 

Such demonstrations of delight, such shouting 
and hurrahs by these colored people, whose mas- 
ters had fled from the city, was indeed a most 
uncommon sight. 

Many rushed forward to shake his hand, some 
to kneel at his feet, while others, with tears stream- 
ing from their eyes, shouted, ''Glory, Hallelujah! 
the Day of Freedom is come 1 " 

Mr, Lincoln's entrance into the enemy's ruined 
Capital was most unique, and tinlike any other 
conqueror in the history of tJie zvorld. 

Without any parade or display, with but a 
squad of soldiers to accompany him, he quietly 
walked through the streets, filled with a feeling 
of pity and charity for his enemies, joy at the 
thought that the war was over, and gratitude that 
he had been permitted to carry out what he 
considered to be the will of Almighty God, not 
only in restoring the Union, but also \n abolishing 
slavery. 

There was an utter lack of pomp or ceremony 
such as on former historical occasions have 
characterized the triumphal entrances of great 
rulers and military /leroes. One needs but to 
recall Napoleon Bonaparte's pompous entry into 



156 LINCOLN IN STORY 

Berlin in 1806, and the galling humiliation to the 
Prussians it occasioned ; or the more recent 
triumphal and brilliant, though less aggravating, 
appearance of Kaiser Wilhelm and Bismarck with 
the German Army, at the close of tne Franco- 
Prussian War, in Paris, to observe the great dif- 
ference. 

But in Lincoln's great soul there was no room 
for feelings of revenge or malice, and while there 
is scarcely a doubt that he was exalted and thrilled 
with the glory of the triumph of the Union cause, 
he felt keenly for the sorrows and sufferings of 
the Confederates. 

The correspondent of the New York Herald 
of April II, 1865, describing Lincoln's arrival at 
Richmond, wrote : 

"There was the wildest enthusiasm on the part 
of the inhabitants, white and black ; the whole 
population seemed to pour into the street. The 
blacks were exceedingly demonstrative, greeting 
liim as a second Massiah ; some falling on their 
knees in the street and, with uplifted hands, thank- 
ing Gob that they had been permitted to see the 
man who had delivered them from bondage." 

The New York Tribune of the 8th said: 

" Crowds rushed out for a glimpse of the tall 
figure as he walked into the city attended by a 
few friends and a score or two of soldiers. The 



LINCOLN IN STORY 1 57 

joy of the negro knew no bounds. It found ex- 
pression in whooj3s, in contortions, in tears, and 
incessantly in prayerful ejaculations of thanks." 

General Pickett's Wife and Lincoln — Lincoln the 
True Friend of the South 

In the memoirs of General George Edward 
Pickett, Mrs. Pickett relates an interesting inci- 
dent which occurred at Richmond after it had 
fallen into the hands of the Union Army and 
during the President's visit. 

It appears that Pickett's appointment to a ca- 
detship at West Point was partly owing to Lin- 
coln's efforts, and Mrs. Pickett quotes several ex- 
tracts from letters written by the kind-hearted 
friend to the young cadet. 

In one of them he writes : " Now, boy, in your 
struggle for existence, don't you go and forget the 
old maxim that ' one drop of honey catches more 
flies than half a gallon of gall.' Load your 
musket witli this maxim and smoke it in your 
pipe." When the President went to Richmond, 
Mrs. Pickett came to him with her little child in 
her arms. The lady thus describes the incident : 

*' * I am George Pickett's wife,' I said. 

"*And I am Abraham Lincoln.* 

" * The President .? ' 

" ' No, Abraham Lincoln. George's old friend.'* 



158 LINCOLN ir 5T0RY 

"Then Lincoln took the child and kissed it, 
and said In that deep and sympathetic voice v/hich 
was one of his greatest powers over the hearts 
of men : ' Tell your father, rascal, that I forgive 
him for the sake of your mother's smile and your 
bright eyes.' " 

Mrs. Pickett says that her husband's reverence 
for President Lincoln was Intense. When the 
tragic message of his assassination reached General 
Pickett, he cried : 

"My God! my God! The South has lost her 
best friend and protector ; the surest, safest hand 
to guide and steer her through the breakers 
ahead." 

The Assassination and Death of the President 

On the 14th of April, in accordance with Mr. 
Lincoln's wishes, the Stars and Stripes were again 
raised over Fort Sumter with firing of cannon 
and appropriate ceremonies. It was there that 
the war had begun, just four years before, and 
this was to indicate to the world that the war 
was ended. 

The President, happy at the great results v/hich 
he had been able to accomplish for the Union 
and humanity, yielded to his wife's request to 
attend the theatre in the evening. Throughout 
tlie North there was great rejoicing, and, in every 



LINCOLN IN STORY 1 59 

large city, processions during the day and fire- 
works at night gave expression to the feelings of 
thankfulness. Everywhere throughout the Union 
Lincoln's name was greeted with loud cheers. 

The President, in the evening of this most 
eventful day, accompanied his famil) to the the- 
atre, arriving a little after nine o'clock. The large 
audience arose and greeted him with rousing 
cheers. About ten o'clock a man by the name of 
J. Wilkes Booth entered the box where the Presi- 
dent was sitting, and, drawing a pistol, fired at 
him, the ball lodging in his head. The President, 
without a groan or cry of any kind, sank to the 
floor, while the murderer jumped out of the box 
on to the stage, and, running across it, escaped to 
the street, where he sprang upon a horse and fled. 
Lincoln was borne into a house near by and died 
at half-past seven the next morning. 

After the shooting in the theatre the great au- 
dience arose and gave one cry of horror. The 
play was stopped, and the audience dismissed. 

The news of Lincoln's death caused most in- 
tense sorrow, not only throughout the Union, but 
all over the world. He was mourned by millions 
in the North as though he had been their own 
father. Strong men, hearing of his death, wept 
like children, and the heart of the entire nation 
seemed bursting with grief. In Europe, kings and 



l6o LINCOLN IN STORY 

princes, as well as the masses of the people, joined 
in the most tender expressions of sorrow, and it 
seemed tliat the heart of humanity itself was torn 
with grief, while sobbings were heard throughout 
the civilized world. The gentle and loving cham- 
pion of human rights and liberty, was dead, and 
his soul ascended to heaven amid such a wail ol 
sorrow as had never before been heard. The his- 
tory of the world furnishes no such example of 
universal mourning, because Lincoln not only 
loved and suffered for mankind, but he was 

** An honest man, the noblest work of God." 
Lincoln s Last Official Act was to save a Life 

The last official act of Abraham Lincoln was 
to sign a paper to let a man live who was con- 
demned to die. An hour later Lincoln was him- 
self dying ; the man whose life he saved lived 
nearly thirty-five years longer. He was George 
E. Vaughn, who died in Maryville, Mo., in 1899. 

Before the war Vanghn, with his wife and 
children, lived in Canton, Mo. He was a friend 
of Martin E. Green, a brother of United States 
Senator James S. Green, both strong pro-slavery 
men. At the opening of the war Martin E, Green 
recruited a regiment and received a colonel's 
commission from the Confederate Government. 



LINCOLN IN STORY l6l 

Georofe Vaucrhn enlisted under Green's command 
and fought througli the war. 

After a period of fighting, Green and Vaughn 
crossed into Mississippi from Tennessee, camping 
at Tupelo, Miss. Not having heard from his 
family, Green was anxious to hear from his old 
home, so he delegated Vaughn to go on the mis- 
sion of delivering letters to his wife. 

Vaughn had almost completed his trip, having 
reached La Grange, six miles south of Canton, 
when he was captured by a squad of F'ederal 
troops. 

They searched his person, and, finding letters 
and papers concealed about him, he was tried as 
a spy and sentenced to be shot. John B. Hender- 
son, Senator from Missouri, final!)' succeeded in 
getting an order from the President for a retrial, 
but the verdict remained as hitherto. Again Hen- 
derson a|)pealed to Lincoln, who granted a third 
trial, with the same result. 

Henderson was not discoricerted, and again 
went to Lincoln. It was on the afternoon of 
A\A'i\ 14, 1865 — a melancholy date — that the 
Senator called at the White House. He called 
the attention of Lincoln to the fact that the war 

(was practically closed, and s;iid : " Mr. Lincoln, 
this pardon should be granted in the interest of 
peace and conciliation." 



l6o LINCOLN IN STORY 

princes, as well as the masses of the people, joined 
in the most tender expressions of sorrow, and it 
seemed that the heart of humanity itself was torn 
with grief, while sobbings were heard throughout 
the civilized world. The gentle and loving cham- 
pion of human rights and liberty, was dead, and 
his soul ascended to heaven amid such a wail ot 
sorrow as had never before been heard. The his- 
tory of the w^orld furnishes no such example of 
universal mourning, because Lincoln not only 
loved and suffered for mankind, but he was 

*' An honest man, the noblest work of God." 
Lincohis Last Official Act was to save a Life 

The last official act of Abraham Lincoln was 
to sign a paper to let a man live who was con- 
demned to die. An hour later Lincoln was him- 
self dying ; the man whose life he saved lived 
nearly thirty-five years longer. He was George 
E. Vaughn, who died in Maryville, Mo., in 1899. 

Before the war Vanghn, with his wife and 
children, lived in Canton, Mo. He was a friend 
of Martin E. Green, a brother of United States 
Senator James S. Green, both strong pro-slavery 
men. At the opening of the war Martin E. Green 
recruited a regiment and received a colonel's 
commission from the Confederate Government. 



LINCOLN IN STORY l6l 

George Vaui>"l"in enlisted under Green's command 
and fought througli the war. 

After a period of fighting, Green and Vaughn 
crossed into Mississippi from Tennessee, camping 
at Tupelo, Miss. Not having heard from his 
family, Green was anxious to hear from his old 
home, so he delegated Vaughn to go on the mis- 
sion of delivering letters to his wife. 

Vaughn had almost completed his trip, having 
reached La Grange, six miles south of Canton, 
when he was captured by a squad of Federal 
troops. 

They searched his person, and, finding letters 
and papers concealed about him, he was tried as 
a spy and sentenced to be shot John B. Hender- 
son, Senator from Missouri, finall)- succeeded in 
getting an order from the President for a retrial, 
but the verdict remained as hitherto. Again Hen- 
derson ai)pea]ed to Lincoln, who granted a third 
trial, with the same result. 

Henderson was not disconcerted, and again 
went to Lincoln. It was on the afu^-noon of 
Ai;ril 14, 1865 — a melancholy date — that the 
Senator called at the White House. He calkxl 
the attention of Lincoln to the fact tliat the war 
was practically closed, and s;iid : " Mr. Lincoln, 
this pardon should be grantexl in the interest of 
peace and conciliation." 



l62 LINCOLN IN STORY 

Mr. Lincoln replied : '' Senator, I agree with 
yoiL Go to Stanton and tell him this man must 
be released." 

Henderson went to the office of the Secretary 
of War. Stanton became violently angry, and 
swore that he would permit no such procedure. 

Vaughn had but two days to live, and Hender- 
son hastened to make one more stand. After sup- 
per he went to the White House. The President 
was in his office, dressed to cro to Ford's Theatre 
when the Senator entered and told of the meet- 
ing he had had with Stanton. 

Lincoln turned to his desk and wrote a few 
lines on an official sheet of paper. As he handed 
it to Senator Henderson he remarked : ** I tliink 
that will have precedence over Stanton." 

It was an order for an unconditional release 
and pardon — the last official paper ever signed 
by Abraham Lincoln. 

Lincoln s Code of War and the Peace Conference 

of i8gg 

Aside from the emancipation of the slaves^ 
history has recently given a lofty position to one 
of Lincoln's many humane acts, Avhich shows how 
truly he lived and lal)ored for tlie good of man- 
kind, an^l how greatly iie honored and ennobled 
his nation. 



LINCOLN LN STORY 163 

Mr. William Stead, in a letter written at The 
Mague during" the International Peace Conference, 
writes on June i, 1899, as follows: 

" Credit to Abraham Lincoln 

" It is very interesting to Americans to know 
that in the historical retrospect with which Pro- 
fessor Martens opened his case for the Russian 
scheme, he attributed the original initiative of 
the whole movement to Abraham Lincoln, whose 
code for the guidance of the Federal troops dur- 
ing the war served as the first example of the 
effort of Jutmanity to reduce the laws of war 
within reasonable limits," 



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